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22 


BIBLICAL  EPOCHS 


BY 


/ 


Rev.  BURDETT  HART,  D.  D. 


'Aspects  of  Christ:    Studies  of  the  Model  Life, 
"Aspects  of  Heaven,"  "Always  Upward." 


'Ev  jracrais  rais  ypa(f)aU  ra  nepl  aiiroO. 

AovKas  24 : 27 


PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN    BOARD   OF   PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK 

1896 


Copyright,  1896,  by 

THE   TRU8TBK3   OP   IHB 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK. 


All  rights  reserved. 


In  Mtmox^ 

OP  A  BELOVED  AND  SAINTED 

THROUGH  WHOSE  REVERENT  AND  ILLUMINANT 
I    WAS    MADE    ACQUAINTED    FROM 

lEarliegt  (Kfiiltifiooti 

WITH  THE 


PREFATORY. 


The  evolution  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  was  the 
slow,  progressive  work  of  ages.  Revelation  was 
not  perfected  by  one  single  publication  of  what 
God  would  have  men  believe  and  know,  but  it 
was  made  by  gradual  steps  of  progress,  by  un- 
folding of  truth  as  men  were  prepared  to  receive 
it.  Its  basal  design  was  to  develop  the  divine 
plan  of  salvation  for  mankind.  This  great  pur- 
pose runs  through  it  all  like  a  band  of  gold 
through  the  entire  woof  of  a  costly  fabric.  Its 
occult  announcement  was  made  at  the  genesis  of 
the  Biblical  narration ;  it  was  reiterated  in  type 
and  prophecy,  in  signs  and  wonders,  in  sacrifice 
and  law  and  poetry,  until,  in  the  fullness  of  time, 
all  came  to  completion  in  the  person  and  work 
and  atoning  death  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  Old  Testament  was  a  preparation  for  the 
New  Testament.  The  Hebrew  history  was  an 
introduction  to  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 
The  call  of  the  patriarchs,  the  separation  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  the  theocratic  government  of 


6  PREFATORY. 

that  race  through  ages  of  history,  were  designed 
to  conserve  the  revelation  that  God  would  make 
of  his  one  great  purpose  to  bring  in  the  Kingdom 
for  which  the  world  stands.  The  Bible  is  the 
history  of  Redemption — peculiar,  composite,  run- 
ning into  significant  digressions,  but  ever  keep- 
ing a  single  end  in  view.  These  Scriptures  are 
the  inspired  records  of  God's  conduct  of  his  peo- 
ple in  their  long  discipline  for  the  coming  of  the 
Christ.  They  are  unique  among  the  world's  his- 
toric and  literary  works.  "  Men  spake  from  God, 
being  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit."  We  are  to 
recognize  in  them  blended  human  agency  and 
divine  direction.     They  are  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

They  are  by  human  hands,  and  hence  are  the 
subject  of  reverent  investigation.  That  they  are 
in  human  hands  implies  that  their  transmission 
is  under  the  liabilities  of  all  human  work.  That 
they  are  from  God  implies  that  he  would  have 
a  care  for  these  most  important  of  his  works  for 
mankind ;  and  accordingly  we  find  that  the 
Scriptures  have  come  to  us  exceptionally  guarded 
in  their  content  and  correct  in  their  statements. 

The  recent  discoveries  from  the  treasures  of  old 
libraries,  from  the  literature  of  forgotten  and 
buried  collections,  from  the  deciphered  inscrip- 
tions of  ancient  monuments,  from  the  guarded 
manuscripts  of  cloisters,  are  shedding  new  light 


PREFATORY.  7 

on  the  ancient  records,  and  are  giving  strange 
confirmation  to  that  which  has  been  faithfully 
cherished  by  the  Church. 

We  are  finding  that  the  old  Bible  is  ours ;  that 
its  truthfulness  is  confirmed  and  authenticated  by 
the  results  of  discovery  and  scholarship.  More 
and  more  it  is  proved  to  be  our  own  Bible — the 
one  Sacred  Book  of  the  world.  Its  words,  sound- 
ing down  all  the  centuries,  freighted  with  the  joys 
and  griefs  and  exultant  hopes  and  victories  of 
saints  through  the  past  millenniums,  vocal  ever 
with  the  songs  of  angels,  and  full  of  the  expression 
of  the  Son  of  God,  are  proved  to  be  the  very  Word 
of  God.  The  Bible  is  the  stronghold  of  Chris- 
tianity. All  antagonisms  smite  at  it,  would  gladly 
destroy  it.  It  stands  impregnable,  the  same  old 
Bible,  with  the  memor}^  of  the  dead  in  it,  with  the 
warm  love  of  childhood  in  it ;  with  the  woe  of  our 
trials  reverberating  in  its  melancholy  experience, 
and  the  joys  of  our  better  days  ringing  in  its 
psalms  and  prophecies,  like  chimes  of  musical 
bells  above  the  lower  life.  Its  voices  are  like 
choice  music  which  one  cannot  forget ;  its  prom- 
ises are  like  faces  that  ever  beam  upon  us  in  their 
remembered  expression;  it  is  like  a  life  within 
our  life,  warming  and  refreshing  and  invigor- 
ating us. 

Great  periods  hold  their  separate  and  valuable 


8  PREFATORY. 

contribations  to  the  one  object  for  which  all  Scrip- 
ture was  given  by  inspiration  of  God.  The  prom- 
inent epochs  are  great  developments  of  the  pro- 
gressive, and  often  mysterious,  methods  by  which 
the  divine  purpose  was  effected.  They  present 
scenes  full  of  tragic  interest,  in  which  divine  wis- 
dom, united  with  human  agency,  moves  on  to  the 
final  issue. 

Human  history,  as  set  forth  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, may  be  distinguished  into  Nine  Great 
Epochs — the  Paradisean,  the  Antediluvian,  the 
Patriarchal,  the  Mosaic,  the  Prophetic,  the  Messi- 
anic, the  Apostolic,  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Millennial.  Each  one  presents  its  lessons  of 
instruction  and  profit ;  for  "  every  scripture  in- 
spired of  God  is  also  profitable  for  teaching,  for 
reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  which  is  in 
righteousness  :  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  com- 
plete, furnished  completely  unto  every  good  work." 
The  records,  carefully  preserved,  guarded  by 
divine  providence,  furnishing  lessons  of  wisdom 
to  peoples  who  have  received  and  cherished  them 
all  along  the  progress  of  the  race,  also  "  were 
written  for  our  admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends 
of  the  ages  are  come."  They  bring  to  us,  in 
ever-augmented  volume,  acquaintance  with  God's 
moral  government,  and  impressive  enlightenment 
as  to  our  personal  duty. 


PREFATORY.  9 

The  range  that  is  opened  to  us  by  these  great 
epochs  is  vast  and  comprehensive,  reaching  from 
the  golden  era  of  the  world's  morning,  a  morning 
bright  and  beautiful  and  full  of  hope,  through 
long  periods  of  sin  and  turbulence  and  conflict, 
down  to  the  world's  gorgeous  evening,  when  the 
light  and  songs  and  bliss  of  the  early  Paradisean 
day,  shall  be  restored  in  wider  radiance  and 
sweeter  harmonies  and  deeper  happiness,  during 
the  wearily-awaited  and  long-protracted  Millen- 
nium. We  shall  see  the  powers  of  evil  at  their 
baleful  work,  "  spiritual  hosts  of  wickedness  "  in 
opposition  to  God ;  we  shall  behold  august  and 
holy  personages  rising  up  from  the  dark  ranks  of 
humanity,  to  warn,  to  instruct,  to  bless  the  race ; 
we  shall  see  Oxe,  with  the  marks  of  high  divinity 
upon  him,  moving  forth  under  obloquy  and  hate 
to  the  rescue  of  the  lost  world ;  we  shall  witness 
the  ongoing  of  a  blessed  agency  winning  and 
subduing  mankind  to  God. 


CONTENTS 


EPOCH  PAGE 

I.—The  Paradisean 11 

II.— The  Antediluvian 29 

III.— The  Patriarchal 51 

IV.— The  Mosaic 71 

v.— The  Prophetic 91 

VI.— The  Messianic 113 

VII.— The  Apostolic 147 

VIII.— That  of  the  Holy  Spirit 183 

IX.— The  Millennial 201 

10 


EPOCH  I. 


THE  PARADISEAN. 


BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 


THE  PARADISEAN. 


Whose  mind  has  not  reverted  to  the  golden 
days  when  our  first  parents  lived  in  paradise? 
Who  that  has  felt  the  effects  of  sin  and  has  seen 
its  gloomy  reign  on  earth  has  not  Tsdshed  that 
Adam  had  remained  unfallen,  in  his  original 
beauty  and  glory?  That  was  indeed  a  state  to 
be  desired,  of  which  now  we  can  form  only  an 
indistinct  conception. 

Paradise  is  described  in  the  Scriptures  as  a 
garden.  The  account  is :  "  The  Lord  God  planted 
a  garden  eastward,  in  Eden ;  and  there  he  put 
the  man  whom  he  had  formed."  It  was  "the 
garden  of  the  Lord,"  "  the  garden  of  God."  Eden 
was  a  large  region,  whose  locality,  although  it 
has  been  the  subject  of  great  research  and  spec- 
ulation, is  yet  unknown.  We  may  suppose  it  to 
have  been,  wherever  situated,  the  finest  portion 
of  this  beautiful  world  which  God  had  made  for 

13 


14  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

the  residence  of  man.  It  was  a  land  of  moun- 
tains and  smiling  valleys  and  running  streams, 
rich  in  vegetation,  abounding  in  lofty  trees  and 
fragrant  flowers  of  varied  hues.  Its  sky  was  azure 
and  clear;  its  atmosphere  salubrious  and  lucid. 
Over  its  plains  and  through  its  forests  roamed 
in  delightful  harmony  beasts  of  every  species, 
flew  birds  of  varied  notes  and  brilliant  plumage, 
dwelt  all  living  animals,  which  were  then  con- 
tent in  the  new  life  which  the  Creator  had  so 
recently  given  to  them. 

In  the  midst  of  this  fair  Eden,  this  land  of 
pleasure,  as  the  word  imports,  God  had  planted  a 
garden.  More  beautiful  than  the  picturesque 
country  which  surrounded  it,  designed  as  the 
agreeable  dwelling  place,  the  home,  of  those  im- 
mortal beings,  who,  made  in  the  image  of  their 
Creator,  were  to  have  dominion  over  the  earth 
and  all  that  dwelt  upon  it.  It  was  the  center  of 
production  and  pleasure,  the  choice  spot  where 
the  Creator  had  lavished  his  gifts,  the  paradise  of 
the  new  world,  the  bright  gem  in  the  coronet  of 
nature.  There  was  seen  a  luxuriance  which  has 
never  been  equaled. 

In  this  garden  of  God  massive  trees,  cedars  of 
Lebanon,  "  with  fair  branches,  and  with  a  shadow- 
ing shroud,  and  of  an  high  stature,"  lifted  to 
heaven  their  dense  foliage  and  were  swayed  by  the 


THE  PARADISE  AN.  15 

gentle  gales  that  swept  through  their  musical 
crowns.  The  earth  teemed  with  richest  plants  of 
every  order,  whose  unbroken  series  of  fruits  and 
flowers  loaded  the  air  with  their  delicate  odors. 
Fountains  of  perennial  waters  gushed  forth  in 
every  grove,  imparting  coolness  to  the  air  and 
clothing  the  ground  with  verdure.  Birds  of  flash- 
ing plumage  swept  through  those  paradisean 
woods  on  tireless  wings,  waking  in  every  bower 
the  sweetest  harmonies.  Lakes,  on  whose  bosom 
floated  flowering  lilies  and  over  which  sailed 
aquatic  fowl,  nestled  in  shady  retreats,  mirroring 
in  their  glassy  waves  the  trees  that  stood  like  sen- 
tinels around  them.  In  the  midst  of  the  garden 
rose  the  towering  "  tree  of  life "  and  by  its 
side  the  "  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil."  In  this  garden  of  delight  God  placed  the 
man  whom  he  had  formed.  He  assigned  to  him 
his  duties.  For  labor  he  was  to  till  the  ground,  to 
perpetuate  the  useful  productions  of  the  earth,  to 
supply  himself  with  vegetable  food,  and  to  main- 
tain the  garden  in  its  pristine  beauty.  God  did 
not  design  man  for  idleness.  Even  in  his  un- 
fallen,  upright  state,  in  the  prodigality  and  spon- 
taneousness  of  paradise,  he  was  to  develop  his  own 
constitution  and  the  resources  of  nature  by  per- 
sonal labor.  Had  he  remained  in  sinless  strength 
and  purity  his  work  would  have  been  his  pleas- 


16  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

ure,  and  its  products  would  have  been  vigor  for 
himself  and  ornaments  of  utility  for  the  world. 

He  was  also  to  find  development  in  meditation 
and  worship.  In  that  productive  garden  it  was 
easy  for  man  to  secure  the  supplying  of  his  wants. 
His  mental  and  moral  nature  would  demand  cul- 
tivation. He  would  have  time  for  study  and 
for  communion  with  God. 

In  paradise,  man  was  placed  under  law.  One 
tree,  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
was  not  to  be  used.  "  The  Lord  God  commanded 
the  man,  saying.  Of  every  tree  of  the  garden  thou 
may  est  freely  eat :  but  of  the  tree  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it :  for 
in  the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt 
surely  die."  So,  then,  were  the  parents  of  our  race 
in  their  Eden  home,  pursuing  their  labor,  en- 
gaging in  study  and  worship,  and  maintaining 
obedience  to  the  law  of  their  Maker. 

We  fairly  may  infer  that  these  progenitors  of  the 
human  family  came  from  the  hands  of  their  Cre- 
ator perfect  in  body  and  soul.  They  were  adult, 
fitted  in  mind  and  body  for  the  life  they  were  to 
lead,  for  the  duties  which  at  once  devolved  upon 
them.  Though  they  were  children  in  experience, 
they  were  not  immature  in  power.  They  stood  in 
the  glory  of  their  paradisean  home,  vigorous  and 
mature,  the  highly  gifted  lords  of  creation.    They 


THE  PARADISEAN.  17 

honored  the  handiwork  of  their  wise  Maker.  As 
God  saw  that  all  other  things  w^hich  he  created 
were  very  good,  so  he  saw  that  man  was  a  perfect 
creation,  for  in  the  image  of  himself  did  God  create 
man :  "  In  the  image  of  God  created  he  him ;  male 
and  female  created  he  them."  They  were  the 
children  of  the  heavenly  Father.  They  did  jus- 
tice to  his  design  and  product.  In  blooming 
health  and  strength  and  beauty  they  probably 
far  surpassed  all  who  have  succeeded  them. 

"  The  loveliest  pair 
That  ever  since  in  love' s  embraces  met — 
Adam  the  goodliest  man  of  men  since  bom 
His  sons  ;  the  fairest  of  her  daughters  Eve.' ' 

Since  that,  sin  has  wrought  a  deterioration  in  the 
lineaments  and  proportions  of  the  human  form ; 
passion  has  put  its  stamp  thereon  ;  weakness  and 
sickness  have  disarranged  the  harmony  and 
beauty  with  which  God  endowed  it.  Man  has 
lost  the  port  and  power  of  his  primal  manhood. 

Then  the  soul  was  in  its  most  excellent  state. 
All  its  powers  were  in  peace  and  harmony.  There 
was  no  discord  from  depravity,  no  darkness  from 
prejudice,  no  wrong  sway  from  false  habits  and 
perverted  appetites.  God  made  men  upright  ; 
their  many  inventions  are  of  their  own  seeking. 
By  their  very  constitution  they  were  fitted  for  the 


18  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

life  to  which  they  were  introduced.  They  were 
holy.  They  loved  God.  They  saw  in  him  the 
chief  excellence,  and  their  affection  went  forth 
spontaneously  and  earnestly  toward  him.  From 
all  the  objects  around  them,  from  the  wonders  of 
the  vast  creation,  from  the  loveliness  of  the  new- 
formed  earth,  from  nature  in  all  its  marvels  and 
works,  their  devotion  went  up  to  nature's  God. 
From  every  pleasure  that  thrilled  their  senses, 
from  every  duty  that  sprang  from  their  quick  de- 
light, from  every  joy  in  their  free  and  blessed 
confidence,  in  their  unrestricted  intercourse,  they 
turned  with  holy  trust  to  God  and  in  him  they 
found  sweetest  rest  and  peace.  They  had  no 
thought,  no  purpose,  that  was  opposed  to  God. 
The  idea  of  sin  was  foreign  to  their  nature,  and 
had  they  not  been  tempted  from  without  they 
probably  never  would  have  fallen. 

We  can  reproduce  in  imagination  somewhat  of 
the  life  in  paradise  of  the  first  children  of  God 
on  earth.  With  powers  all  fitted  for  immediate 
activity,  filled  with  uninterrupted  happiness  from 
all  that  they  observed  and  from  their  personal  ex- 
periences, they  dwelt  in  the  center  and  at  the  head 
of  the  new  creation.  Life  and  beauty  were  all 
around  them ;  the  life  and  beauty  of  the  earth's 
glad  morning,  before  the  gloom  of  sin  had  en- 
shrouded it  and  before  the  wickedness  of  man  had 


THE  PARADISEAN.  19 

polluted  it  with  deeds  of  violence  and  crime ;  in- 
deed, just  as  God  himself  with  infinite  skill  and 
wisdom  had  formed  it.  There  they  lived  alone, 
yet  not  alone;  they  lived  amidst  the  works  of 
nature  which  are  the  works  of  God.  Every 
song  they  heard  found  an  echo  and  refrain  within 
them.  Every  leaf  and  flower  was  penciled  with 
divine  words,  the  writings  of  God's  hand.  Every 
star  shone  in  its  beams  with  the  smile  of  God.  The 
scenes  of  loveliness  in  the  world,  in  all  the  visible 
universe,  were  photographs  by  God's  own  hand. 
All  things  on  earth  were  subordinated  to  their 
will.  God  gave  man  dominion  over  the  fish  of 
the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over 
every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 
He  authorized  him  to  subdue  the  earth,  to  bring 
its  every  treasure  and  product  into  subjection  to 
his  desires  and  purposes.  God  also  caused  the 
beasts  and  the  fowls  to  pass  before  Adam,  in  long 
succession  and  order,  that  he  might  give  them 
names,  and  whatsoever  the  man  called  every  liv- 
ing creature  that  was  the  name  thereof  In  this 
vocabulary  he  first  perhaps  practically  employed 
the  language  which  the  Creator  had  given  him. 
From  that  he  extended  his  observations,  gained 
a  knowledge  of  the  properties  and  uses  of  other 
objects,  and  classified  the  diverse  kingdoms  of 
nature. 


20  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

God  was  the  teacher  of  our  first  parents.  They 
had  the  mental  and  moral  capacities  which  fitted 
them  for  intelligent  and  spiritual  life.  They  had 
minds  and  bodies  constituted  for  right  action,  but 
not  matured  by  experience.  In  capacity,  they 
were  mature;  in  experience,  immature.  They 
were  not  under  the  necessity  of  growing  up  in 
stature  and  in  mental  strength;  all  that  they 
needed  was  the  right  exercise  of  the  powers  which 
they  had.  This  God  taught  them.  The  habits 
and  attainments  which  are  necessary  for  right 
living  are  ordinarily  the  product  of  the  long  and 
co-operative  experience  of  men;  but  at  first  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  many  things  were 
communicated  directly  by  the  Creator.  He  as- 
sumed the  education  of  his  children,  that  they 
might  enter  on  life  in  accord  with  his  design  and 
might  properly  educate  their  children.  So  the 
first  parents  were  divinely  instructed,  and  their 
temporal  and  spiritual  life  began  as  God  desired. 

It  may  be  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  Second 
Person  of  the  glorious  Trinity,  the  Son  of  God, 
who  afterward  appeared  to  the  patriarchs,  who  in 
the  fullness  of  time  came  forth  as  the  Saviour  of 
the  race,  who  throughout  all  our  human  history 
has  been  brought  into  most  intimate  relations 
with  men,  was,  in  human  form,  but  in  divine 
grace,  by  intimate  and  blessed   intercourse,  the 


THE  PARADISEAN.  21 

voluntary  instructor  of  these  earliest  scholars  of 
mankind. 

Perhaps,  too,  holy  angels  communed  with  them  ; 
came  with  the  Son  of  God  on  their  shining  pin- 
ions, walked  with  Adam  and  Eve  through  the 
fascinating  grounds  of  paradise,  telling  them  of 
God,  of  more  brilliant  mansions  in  the  holy 
heaven,  their  home,  of  the  occupations  of  those 
earlier  children  of  God,  and  loving  them  as 
younger,  the  earth-born,  children  of  the  common 
Father. 

To  them  everything  was  new.  Life  was  new ; 
the  world  was  new ;  their  acquaintance  with  God 
and  with  his  works  was  new  and  full  of  mystery. 
They  looked  abroad  through  the  long-drawn 
vistas  of  Eden  and  beheld  forests  and  towering 
mountains  and  running  rivers  stretching  away 
through  great  territories  all  unknown  to  them. 
They  turned  their  gaze  into  the  blue  heavens, 
and  their  wonder  was  stirred  by  the  arching  sky 
and  the  stellar  orbs.  They  must  have  prized  the 
presence  of  superior  spirits  with  whom  they  could 
converse  and  whom  they  could  love.  Happy  pair ! 
happy  in  themselves,  happy  in  their  home,  happy 
in  their  Creator.  How  long  they  continued 
in  their  blissful  state,  enjoying  the  blessings 
of  paradise  and  communing  with  God  as  their 
Father,  we  are  not  informed.     Months  and  years 


22  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

perhaps  may  have  passed  by,  during  which  they 
grew  in  knowledge  and  ability  and  in  the  full 
understanding  of  their  condition  and  relations. 
During  this  time,  short  or  long,  they  obediently 
observed  the  requirements  of  their  Creator. 
Daily  they  ate  of  the  tree  of  life  which  stood  in 
the  midst  of  the  garden,  whose  fruit  preserved 
their  health,  renewed  their  strength,  and  would 
have  sustained  them  in  perpetual  vigor  as  long 
as  they  should  partake  of  it. 

At  length  there  came  a  change — dark,  sud- 
den, terrible.  The  conspirator  from  hell  entered 
paradise,  and  tempted  Eve,  in  a  way  unknown  to 
us,  by  some  evil  lure,  to  taste  of  the  fruit  of  the 
tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  of  which 
God  had  said, "  Thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it :  for  in  the 
day  that  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely 
die."  To  this  tree  the  obedient  pair  had  never 
dared,  never  wished,  to  stretch  forth  a  hand ;  they 
had  not  even  thought  of  doing  what  their  Creator 
had  forbidden  them  to  do.  But  the  insidious  wiles, 
the  artful  pleas,  of  the  tempter,  the  adversary  of 
God  and  man,  were  too  much  for  the  new,  frail 
virtue  of  the  holy,  inexperienced  parents  of  our 
race.  The  law  of  God  was  not  so  completel}^  and 
firmly  enthroned  in  them  that  temptation  could 
not  move  them  from  their  loyalty.  Eve  at  first 
answered  the  tempter  well;   but  by  gradual  ad- 


THE  PARADISEAN.  23 

vances  he  drew  her  toward  the  fatal  act.  "  When 
the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food, 
and  that  it  was  a  delight  to  the  eyes,  and  that  the 
tree  w^as  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took  of 
the  fruit  thereof,  and  did  eat ;  and  she  gave  also 
unto  her  husband  with  her,  and  he  did  eat."  The 
sinful  deed  was  done. 

From  that  moment  the  history  of  man  was 
changed.  Sin  was  in  the  world,  and  death  and  all 
our  woes  were  secured.  The  curse  of  God  was 
pronounced  upon  man.  Pain  and  sorrow  would 
afflict  him.  Thorns  and  thistles  would  spring  up 
on  the  ground,  increasing  the  burden  of  labor. 
God,  who  had  been  man's  friend,  who  had  conde- 
scended to  an  intimate  intercourse  with  him,  would 
withdraw  and  leave  him  to  bitter  regrets  and  hard 
endurance  and  the  woe  of  sin.  Death  would 
begin  its  reign,  a  wide  and  terrific  dominion! 
Yet,  mingled  with  the  sternness  of  justice  were 
promises  of  mercy ;  on  the  clouds  of  despair  was 
painted  the  bow  of  hope;  and  God,  who  pro- 
nounced the  penalty,  proclaimed  deliverance.  In 
the  very  midst  of  the  sorrows  of  the  Fall  came 
the  announcement  of  the  Saviour. 

Still,  paradise  could  no  longer  be  the  abode  of 
man.  Its  delights  were  not  prepared  for  sinners. 
By  sinning,  our  first  parents  had  forfeited  all  the 
pleasures  of  the  place.     No  longer  could  they  be 


24  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS, 

permitted  to  approach  the  tree  of  life,  of  whose  fair 
fruit  they  had  daily  partaken.  Life  was  insured 
to  them  no  more.  They  were  under  the  power 
of  Death.  God  therefore  drove  them  forth  from 
the  garden  to  the  toil  and  pain  and  tumult  of 
a  hostile  world : 

"  The  world  was  all  before  them,  where  to  choose 
Their  place  of  rest,  and  Providence  their  guide. 
They  hand  in  hand,  with  wand'  ring  steps  and  slow, 
Through  Eden  took  their  solitary  way." 

And  they  could  return  no  more.  Cherubim  and 
a  flaming  sword  that  turned  every  way  were 
placed  at  the  closed  and  guarded  gates  of  para- 
dise to  keep  back  any  bold  intruder.  Since  that 
fatal  fall,  no  man  has  trod  the  walks,  rested  in  the 
bowers,  tasted  the  fruit,  of  the  sacred  garden. 

Mournful  must  have  been  the  thought  of  the 
deserted  paradise.  Melancholy  must  have  been 
the  feelings  of  the  guilty  and  expelled  transgress- 
ors as  afar  they  looked  upon  the  towering  groves 
of  their  former  home  and  remembered  with  an- 
guish the  cause  of  their  banishment. 

Wandering  back  in  this  brief  review  to  the 
morning  of  the  world's  history,  and  lingering  for 
a  while  in  the  beautiful  garden  home  which  was 
lost  by  our  first  parents'  disobedience,  we  are 
impressed  anew  with  the  excellence  of  holiness.  That 
made  paradise.    Not  its  salubrious  air,  not  its  rich 


THE  PARADISEAX  25 

productions,  not  its  exceptional  beauty,  but  the 
holiness  of  its  dwellers,  made  it  the  "  garden  of 
delight."  As  long  as  they  were  loyal  to  God,  so 
long  they  were  blessed,  and  all  things  around 
them  were  in  excellent  order,  peace,  and  beautiful 
harmony.  God  was  their  beloved  and  they  were 
his.  Heaven  and  earth  were  in  delightful  accord. 
Life  was  rich  and  full  and  every  way  desirable. 
The  lower  creatures  contributed  to  their  joy  and 
welfare. 

Also,  we  are  impressed  with  the  deplorahleness 
of  sin.  One  act  of  disobedience,  simple  in  itself 
but  testing  man's  regard  for  God,  not  only  lost 
paradise  for  us,  but  brought  on  dire  calamities  of 
unending  nature.  It  expelled  man  from  the  fair 
home  that  his  Creator  had  prepared  for  him, 
brought  on  him  the  curse  of  God,  and  sent  its  sad 
effects  through  the  whole  human  history. 

*'  Earth  felt  the  wound  ;  and  Nature  from  her  seat, 
Sighing  through  all  her  works,  gave  sighs  of  woe 
That  all  was  lost." 

From  that  time  till  now  the  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain,  sighing  for  deliv- 
erance from  the  bondage  of  corruption.  Sorrow, 
disease,  conflict,  death,  are  the  heritage  of  sin 
here ;  hereafter  to  be  indignation  and  wrath,  trib- 
ulation and  anguish,  forever. 


26  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

Sin  is  transgression  of  God's  law.  It  is  hostile 
to  the  glory  which  belongs  to  him  and  to  the  serv- 
ice which  is  his  due.     All  holy  beings  deplore  it. 

We  sometimes  wonder  that  Adam  and  Eve 
should  have  plucked  and  eaten  the  forbidden  fruit. 
We  make  little  allowance  for  their  freshness  and 
inexperience.  With  all  the  knowledge  which 
we  have  of  sin  and  its  effects,  and  which  they  had 
not,  we  act  as  badly  as  they  did.  He  would  be  a 
bold  man  who  should  claim  that  he  had  not  done 
worse  than  our  first  parents.  With  the  disposition 
which  we  manifest,  and  which  is  universally 
prevalent,  it  is  wellnigh  certain  that  we  would 
pluck  forbidden  fruit  and  bring  upon  ourselves  the 
judgment  of  God.  It  is  what  we  are  doing.  We 
perpetuate  the  sin  which  Adam  originated. 

Further,  we  are  impressed  with  the  necessity  and 
the  preciousness  of  the  redemption  by  Christ.  By 
his  work  he  has  lifted  up  the  curse  from  our  souls. 
In  no  other  way  could  it  be  done.  "  For  as 
through  the  one  man's  disobedience  the  many 
were  made  sinners,  even  so  through  the  obedience 
of  the  one  shall  the  many  be  made  righteous." 
At  the  instant  of  the  Fall,  God  promised  that  the 
serpent's  head  should  be  bruised.  "  When  the 
fullness  of  the  time  came,  God  sent  forth  his  Son, 
born  of  a  woman,  born  under  the  law,  that  he 
might  redeem  them  which  were  under  the  law,  that 


THE  PARADISEAN.  27 

we  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons."  With- 
out that,  this  world  would  have  been  one  of  de- 
spair. Without  Christ,  the  curse  would  have 
been  perpetual ;  the  ruin  of  the  Fall  would  have 
been  a  helpless  ruin.  Well,  then,  may  we  prize 
the  redemption  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Para- 
dise is  lost;  but  paradise  may  be  regained.  A 
brighter  home  than  that  which  God  prepared  for 
man  on  earth,  Christ  is  preparing  for  his  friends 
in  heaven.  Sin  spoiled  the  beauty  of  the  former, 
and  its  very  site  was  long  since  obliterated.  But 
into  the  latter  sin  can  never  enter.  There  shall 
be  no  more  curse.  And  death  shall  be  no  more ; 
neither  shall  there  be  mourning,  nor  crying,  nor 
pain,  any  more  ;  the  first  things  are  passed  away. 
The  tree  of  life  has  been  plucked  up  from  the 
earth ;  here  we  cannot  find  its  leaves  and  its  fruit. 
But  it  has  been  transplanted  in  heaven,  where  it 
grows  in  perennial  beauty,  bearing  twelve  man- 
ner of  fruits,  yielding  its  fruit  every  month ;  and 
the  leaves  of  the  tree  are  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations. 

We  bid  farewell  to  our  lost  terrestrial  paradise. 
We  shall  never  drink  from  its  fountains ;  we 
shall  never  gather  its  peerless  flowers ;  we  shall 
never  rest  in  its  bowers.  We  shall  not  there 
walk  with  God  as  our  first  parents  walked. 

We  await  the  welcome  to  another  paradise. 


28  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

We  pant  for  its  salubrious  air ;  we  thirst  for  the 
river  of  the  water  of  life:  we  hunger  for  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  of  life :  we  long  for  the  society 
of  just  men  made  perfect:  we  wait  for  Christ. 
Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly ! 


EPOCH  II. 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN. 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN. 


Respecting  the  long  ages  from  the  Fall  to  the 
Deluge  we  know  but  little.  Over  nearly  all  that 
then  transpired  and  nearly  all  who  then  existed 
rolls  the  dark  wave  of  oblivion.  A  few  verses  of 
sacred  history  constitute  the  only  record  of  more 
than  sixteen  centuries  of  time.  Yet  the  brief 
statements  are  full  of  interest  and  suggestion  of 
thrilling  truth.  Those  dark  days  before  the  flood 
were  days  of  turbulence  and  violence  and  daring 
crime  against  God  and  man.  We  behold  the 
gigantic  forms  of  wicked  men  stalking  over  the 
earth  and  blighting  it  with  their  slaughter,  op- 
pression, and  lust.  We  see  righteousness  banished 
from  the  homes  of  the  world,  and  at  length  find- 
ing refuge  in  the  bosom  of  only  a  single  family. 
Yet  during  this  epoch  of  blood  and  sin  there  were 
holy  men — a  goodly  succession  of  those  who  loved 
God  and  who  perpetuated  the  ordinances  of  re- 
ligion, whose  names  the  inspired  historian  has 
preserved  and  which  shine  with  brighter  splen- 
dor on   account  of  the  darkness  of  their  times, 

31 


32  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

as  brilliant  stars  at  night  between  enshrouding 
clouds. 

The  review  and  lessons  of  the  antediluvian 
days  bring  out  a  peculiar  history.  Under  the 
curse  of  God  we  have  seen  our  first  parents  driven 
forth  from  paradise  to  a  life  of  toil  and  pain. 
Their  natural  wants  led  them  at  once  to  settle  at 
some  locality  where  they  planted  their  home  and 
commenced  their  labors.  Their  children,  brought 
into  the  world  in  pain  and  anguish,  grew  up  with 
them  and  were  instructed  in  the  duties  of  labor 
and  worship.  Adam  and  his  wife,  although  they 
had  so  fatally  sinned  and  therefore  had  suffered, 
undoubtedly  accepted  the  provisions  of  grace  which 
God  had  mercifully  announced  to  them,  and  lived 
thenceforth  in  reconciliation  with  him.  But  their 
repentance  could  not  restore  them  to  that  perfect 
state  and  that  union  with  God  which  they  had  be- 
fore enjoyed.  In  paradise  there  was  an  intimacy 
of  intercourse  with  God  which  they  never  afterward 
experienced.  There,  it  was  like  the  intercourse  and 
worship  of  the  angels  in  heaven.  Afterward,  God 
was  withdrawn ;  he  appeared  to  them  in  visible 
form  no  more ;  he  spake  with  them  as  friend  with 
friend  no  more.  They  brought  to  him  their 
thank-offerings,  and  at  bloody  altars  they  made 
sacrifice  for  sin,  of  beasts  that  were  slain. 

All  the  world  was  changed,  and  all  their  life 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  33 

upon  it.  In  paradise  the  garden  produced  spon- 
taneously and  continuously  its  undeviating  series 
of  fruits  for  their  nourishment.  But  now  the 
smitten  earth  required  careful  cultivation,  it 
produced  its  harvests  reluctantly,  and  the  labor 
spent  upon  it  was  often  disappointing.  Blight 
and  mildew  destroyed  the  ripening  crops.  Thorns 
and  thistles  sprang  up  spontaneously  over  the 
fields,  contending  with  man  for  the  mastery.  Wild 
beasts  became  his  enemy  and  ravaged  his  pos- 
sessions. Birds  of  pillage  consumed  the  fruits  of 
his  toil  and  care.  Life  was  a  scene  of  conflict  and 
sweat  and  hard  endurance.  What  he  gained  and 
garnered  for  his  own  subsistence  was  gained  by 
exertion  and  was  truly  "  the  bread  of  sorrows." 

The  entire  experience  of  the  sinful  state  was 
new.  Adam  was  created  unconsciously  to  himself. 
When  Eve  w^as  formed,  though  she  was  taken 
from  his  side,  it  was  as  a  pleasant  dream  w^hen 
one  awaketh.  But  birth  now  had  assumed  a  pain- 
ful character.  Sorrow,  pangs  next  to  the  limit 
of  endurance,  were  its  accompaniments.  It  was 
the  distressful  reminder  to  her  who  was  first  in 
transgression,  of  the  evil  nature  of  sin.  Mys- 
terious and  wonderful  to  the  first  parents  must 
have  been  the  birth  of  their  first  child,  the  being 
of  one  so  helpless,  so  perfectly  formed,  so  dependent 
for  life,  the  miniature  image  of  themselves.     With 


34  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

mingled  emotions  of  wonder  and  joy  they  must 
have  watched  the  actions,  the  growth,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  bodily  and  mental  powers  of  their 
son.  It  was  altogether  unlike  their  own  experi- 
ence. They  were  made  adult,  their  systems 
mature  and  ready  for  independent  life.  Here  was 
one  entirely  dependent  upon  them,  yet  daily  ac- 
quiring strength  and  approaching  maturity.  To 
them  was  committed  the  new  task  of  training  him 
for  life  and  duty — in  which,  perhaps,  they  failed  ; 
for  their  firstborn  brought  great  calamity  upon 
them  by  a  crime  of  the  darkest  character.  As  they 
had  voluntarily  sinned  against  God,  abused  his 
goodness  and  love,  they  knew  and  bore  the  agony 
which  parents  feel  from  the  waywardness  and 
guilt  of  a  beloved  child. 

The  experience  of  death  was  also  new  to  them. 
As  years  passed  away,  and  they,  at  length,  were 
called  to  look  upon  the  dead  form  of  one  whom 
they  had  loved,  as  they  gazed  into  the  rayless  eyes 
once  beaming  with  intelligence,  as  they  laid  their 
hands  upon  the  cold  limbs  once  lithe  and  active, 
and  heard  no  voice  in  response  to  their  call, 
strange  emotions  must  have  overpowered  them. 
Death  must  have  had  peculiar  terror  and  they 
must  have  shrunk  from  the  dread  dissolution  of 
soul  and  body. 

But  these  facts  of  birth  and  death  and  all  the 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  35 

varied  elements  of  human  life  came  on,  and  man 
became  accustomed  to  the  experiences  of  his 
fallen  state.  The  antediluvian  generations  multi- 
plied and  a  strange  history  was  enacted. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  facts  is  the  extraor- 
dinary length  of  human  life  in  the  days  before  the 
flood.  We  are  obliged  to  recur  to  what  we  regard 
as  almost  ancient  history  to  ascertain  facts  no 
further  away  than  such  as  the  antediluvians 
might  have  remembered  as  occurring  in  their 
own  lifetime.  Adam  lived  to  be  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  years  of  age;  Seth  lived  nine  hun- 
dred and  twelve  years  ;  Jared,  nine  hundred  and 
sixty-two  years;  Methuselah,  nine  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  years.  Such  periods  of  time  would 
reach  back  from  our  day  beyond  the  first  crusade 
to  the  Holy  Land,  beyond  the  days  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  to  the  founding  of  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity; as  far  back  as  the  time  when  figures  in 
arithmetic  were  introduced  into  Europe  by  the 
Saracens;  hundreds  of  years  beyond  the  dis- 
covery of  America  by  Columbus.  Think  of  all 
that  has  transpired  within  the  past  nine  hundred 
and  thirty  years  in  the  revolutions  among  the 
nations,  in  the  progress  of  learning,  science,  and 
religion ;  and  then  think  that  one  with  a  life  as 
long  as  that  of  Adam  might  have  witnessed  it  all. 

It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  such  longevity.     At 


36  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

that  early  period  it  was  permitted  for  wise  reasons. 
The  unoccupied  earth  was  to  be  peopled,  and 
through  such  prolonged  lives  individual  families 
would  be  greatly  increased.  It  is  supposed  by 
some  that,  for  this  reason,  the  earth,  during  the 
antediluvian  epoch,  contained  a  greater  number 
of  inhabitants  than  it  has  since  done.  This  lon- 
gevity would  also  tend  to  a  great  advancement  in 
learning,  art,  and  civilization.  The  principal  rea- 
son why  greater  maturity  and  perfection  are  not 
now  attained  by  men  in  their  various  investiga- 
tions and  productions,  is  that  death  interrupts 
their  discoveries  and  stops  the  studies  and  inven- 
tions which  they  have  pursued.  It  was  not  so 
before  the  flood.  Men  then  had  time  to  push 
their  investigations,  to  give  system  and  efficacy  to 
their  plans  and  inventions,  and  to  develop  prac- 
tical results  of  a  mature  character.  Skill  would 
be  matured  by  such  prolonged  experiment  and 
that  which  one  thoroughly  attained  he  would  have 
time  to  communicate  to  others.  We  may  there- 
fore suppose  that  the  antediluvians  approached 
a  state  of  knowledge  and  skill,  in  those  works 
to  which  their  attention  was  given,  such  as  we 
should  not,  at  first  thought,  be  apt  to  impute  to 
those  early  times.  One  of  the  first  things  men- 
tioned of  Cain  after  his  banishment  is  that  he 
build ed  a  city  and  called  it  after  the  name  of  his 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  37 

son.  This  would  seem  to  indicate  quite  a  degree 
of  cultivation  and  knowledge  from  the  earliest 
times.  Of  Jubal  it  is  written,  *'  he  was  the  father 
of  all  such  as  handle  the  harp  and  organ,"  show- 
ing that  the  science  of  music  was  then  cultivated. 
Tubal-cain  is  spoken  of  as  "an  instructor  of  every 
artificer  in  brass  and  iron,"  which  indicates  the 
knowledge  of  architecture,  agriculture,  and  me- 
chanics. 

How  far  the  knowledge  and  attainments  and 
works  of  the  antediluvians  extended  we  are  not 
explicitly  informed.  We  are  forced  to  rely  upon 
inference  from  the  few  facts  that  are  stated.  We 
know  that  Noah,  with  the  knowledge  and  skill 
possessed  in  those  days,  constructed  an  ark  of 
more  than  forty  thousand  tons  burden,  which 
was  capable  of  holding  all  the  varieties  of  living 
animals,  with  food  for  their  sustenance  for  several 
months,  together  with  a  family  of  eight  persons 
with  supplies  for  their  wants,  and  which  was 
strong  enough  to  endure  the  rush  and  shock  of 
the  deluge.  We  know  that  not  long  after  the 
flood  the  sons  of  men  projected  a  stupendous 
tower  whose  top  should  reach  to  heaven,  in  the 
building  of  which  they  were  arrested  only  by  the 
hand  of  the  Almighty.  These  things  indicate 
skill  and  ability  to  execute  corresponding  to  those 
of   any  age.      We  may  therefore    suppose  that 


38  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

splendid  cities  and  costly  towers,  princely  palaces 
and  capacious  edifices  for  war  or  for  trade,  were 
seen  before  the  flood.  Possibly  the  works  of 
human  genius  and  strength  surpassed  all  that 
have  since  been  witnessed.  The  lofty  tower  of 
Babel,  rising,  perhaps,  above  all  the  works  of  man 
since  its  day,  may  be  the  sole  symbol  and  witness 
this  side  of  the  deluge  of  what  was  common  be- 
fore it.  The  long  life. of  that  period  would  nat- 
urally stimulate  to  the  erection  of  more  costly 
and  massive  structures  than  any  that  have  since 
been  attempted. 

How  far,  in  other  respects,  the  achievements  of 
art,  science,  and  skill  were  carried  must  be  left  to 
conjecture,  aided  only  by  the  slightest  hints  from 
the  brief  Scripture  narrative.  The  prolonged  life 
of  the  antediluvians  certainly  gave  them  peculiar 
advantages  for  attaining  distinction  and  perfection 
in  every  work  to  which  they  gave  devoted  at- 
tention. 

Moreover,  we  know  that  the  East,  the  land  of 
Noah,  has  from  the  earliest  times  been  the  seat 
and  source  of  science  and  art.  There  flourished 
the  powerful  empires  of  the  ancient  world.  There 
stood  the  splendid  cities  whose  disentombed  ruins 
now  astonish  excavators  and  explorers.  There 
sculpture  and  the  kindred  arts  were  carried  to  a 
high  degree  of  perfection.     There  astronomy  had 


TBE  ANTEDTLVVIAN.  39 

its  post-diluvian  birth.  There  arithmetic  was 
studied,  and  the  science  of  numbers  came  thence 
to  the  western  lands.  There  are  found  the  litho- 
graphic monuments  which  are  yielding  new  light 
from  age  to  age  on  the  facts  of  most  ancient  his- 
tory. From  these  lands  have  flowed  forth  the 
streams  of  knowledge  and  taste  and  power  which 
have  blessed  the  nations  of  the  world.  Who  shall 
say  that  all  that  Babylon  and  Nineveh  accom- 
plished, all  that  the  human  mind  in  the  wide 
range  of  its  achievements  in  Egypt  and  Arabia 
and  among  other  peoples  of  the  Orient  attained, 
was  anything  more  than  the  relics  of  what  the 
world  had  witnessed  in  the  days  of  its  antedi- 
luvian vigor  and  glory? 

The  uniformity  of  human  language  is  another 
striking  characteristic  of  this  epoch.  By  this 
common  bond  the  human  family  was  held  to- 
gether. We  see  the  strength  of  that  bond  now. 
A  common  language  bespeaks  brotherhood.  A 
strange  tongue  implies  separation.  Language  is 
that  which  characterizes  peoples.  In  those  days 
wherever  men  went  they  found  their  own  dialect 
universall}^  spoken.  A  common  language  would 
lead  to  common  aims  and  attainments  and  to 
a  universal  advancement.  Great  undertakings 
would  be  carried  forward  with  higher  hopes  of 
success  than  could  otherwise  be  expected.     It  is 


40  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

in  the  prophecies  of  future  greatness  and  glorj'- 
that  the  nations  shall  come  back  to  the  possession 
and  use  of  a  common  language.  When  God 
purposed  to  bring  human  counsels  to  nought  and 
put  an  end  to  the  gigantic  works  which  men 
had  impiously  undertaken,  he  confounded  their 
language.  Since  then,  nations,  however  numerous 
and  powerful,  may  not  have  been  able  to  accom- 
plish what  before  a  united  world  could  accomplish. 

We  know  but  little  of  the  customs  of  society, 
the  manner  of  life,  and  the  forms  of  government 
among  the  antediluvians.  Marriage  has  been 
known  from  the  beginning,  an  institution  of 
God  coeval  with  the  race.  The  family  and  the 
home  have  therefore  always  existed.  A  son  of 
Cain  first  practiced  polygamy,  then,  as  always, 
contrary  to  the  ordinance  of  God,  a  human  abuse 
of  a  divine  regulation.  The  Sabbath  was  an 
established  ordinance  of  God.  Worship,  in  some 
form,  was  more  or  less  practiced.  Families  were 
probably  united  for  the  promotion  of  common 
interests ;  while  powerful  clans  arose  as  events 
advanced.  Over  all  human  institutions  was  the 
manifest  control  of  God. 

But  the  most  striking  characteristic  of  the 
antediluvian  epoch  w^as  its  extraordinary  and 
terrible  wickedness.  That  was  the  iron  age  of  crime. 
Men  toiled  in  sin  and  debasement.     They  rioted 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  41 

in  lust  and  blasphemy.  The  very  earth  reeled 
under  the  tramp  and  rush  of  its  maddened  and 
turbulent  population.  Before  the  frantic  onset 
of  vice  everything  good  and  hallowed  was  swept 
away.  "There  were  giants  in  those  days,"  men 
who  were  monsters  of  oppression,  lust,  and  crime. 
Wickedness  attained  a  gigantic  growth :  "  Every 
imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  man's  heart  was 
only  evil  continually.  The  earth  was  corrupt 
before  God,  and  the  earth  was  filled  with  violence. 
And  it  repented  the  Lord  that  he  had  made  man 
on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him  at  his  heart." 
Crime  had  an  early  beginning.  Hardly  had 
the  first  family  become  settled  when  their  first- 
born child  reddened  his  hands  with  his  brother's 
blood.  Wicked  and  envious  Cain  lifted  his  hand 
against  the  gentle  and  pious  Abel,  so  covering 
his  name  with  everlasting  infamy  as  the  first 
murderer.  The  weeping  parents  bowed  over  the 
cold  form  of  their  martyred  son,  whose  spirit  was 
the  first  to  ascend  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  they 
were  pierced  anew  with  sorrow  over  the  bitter 
fruits  of  their  sin  in  paradise.  Cain  was  cursed, 
and  he  went  forth  a  fugitive  and  a  vagabond  in 
the  earth.  In  the  land  of  Nod  he  founded  a 
wicked  state  where  infidelity  and  vice  prevailed. 
This,  perhaps,  became  the  fountain  head  of  those 
temptations  which  assailed  the  sons  of  God  and 


42  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

which  brought  on  a  deep  and  dreadful  degeneracy 
and  corruption.  For  a  time  the  descendants  of 
the  pious  patriarchs,  Seth,  Enos  and  others,  re- 
mained distinct  and  continued  the  ordinances  of 
religion ;  but,  as  the  race  multiplied,  they  became 
acquainted  with  those  of  an  opposite  character, 
and,  breaking  away  from  the  restraints  of  educa- 
tion and  habit,  "  the  sons  of  God  "  formed  unhal- 
lowed alliances  with  "  the  daughters  of  men." 
"  They  took  them  wives  of  all  that  they  chose." 
The  result  was  a  profligate  progeny,  a  race  of  gi- 
gantic sinners.  From  that  time  the  wickedness 
of  man  was   great  in   the  earth. 

There  were,  indeed,  some  who  loved  and  served 
God.  In  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis  a  genealogy 
is  given  probably  of  those  who  were  pious,  the 
line  of  hol}^  men  who,  amid  the  prevailing  wick- 
edness, maintained  the  worship  of  God.  Among 
these  was  Enoch,  who  "  walked  with  God,"  and 
"was  translated  that  he  should  not  see  death," 
and  who  "  before  his  translation  had  witness  borne 
to  him  that  he  had  been  well-pleasing  unto 
God."  Among  the  depraved  of  his  day  he  stood 
forth  in  faithful  testimony  for  the  truth,  rebuking 
sinners  by  his  pure  life  and  his  solemn  warnings. 
Like  Elijah,  he  was  borne  away  from  the  earth, 
a  witness  of  the  immortality  of  man,  of  the 
reality  of  the  future  life.      "  He  was  not ;  for  God 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  43 

took  him."  But  although  the  generation  of  the 
pious  was  continued,  yet  goodness  rapidly  dimin- 
ished and  there  was  an  alarming  increase  of  wick- 
edness. Commencing  in  families,  corruption 
extended  through  all  ranks  of  social  and  civil  life. 
Religion  and  its  claims  were  banished  from  their 
minds.  Violence  reigned.  There  was  oppression, 
robbery,  and  bold  murder.  The  strong  plundered 
the  weak  and  every  man's  hand  was  set  against 
his  fellow. 

We  can  form  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  world  in 
that  epoch  of  licentiousness  and  crime.  So  pol- 
luted and  debased  had  men  become,  that  Jehovah 
repented  that  he  had  made  them,  and  he  deter- 
mined by  one  tremendous  deluge  to  sweep  them 
and  all  the  marks  and  monuments  of  their  sin 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.  One  man  alone  found 
favor  with  God,  the  righteous  Xoah,  whose  faith 
in  God  never  faltered,  and  who,  when  men  went 
mad  in  sin,  maintained  unswerving  loyalty  to 
his  Maker.  To  him  God  communicated  his  pur- 
pose to  destroy  the  world,  and  he  commanded 
him  to  build  an  ark  sufficiently  large  to  hold  his 
family  and  all  the  species  of  living  animals. 
One  of  the  most  sublime  declarations  in  human 
annals  is  that  respecting  Noah's  obedience  : 
"  Thus  did  Noah ;  according  to  all  that  God 
commanded  him,  so  did  he." 


44  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

The  strong  timbers  of  that  famous  and  stu- 
pendous structure  were  laid.  Its  architect  was 
God.  We  can  faintly  imagine  the  merriment  and 
ribaldry  and  scorn  which  such  a  work  must  have 
caused.  The  impious  and  profane  would  cer- 
tainly mock  the  old  man,  who,  with  the  frosts  of 
five  centuries  upon  his  head,  had  undertaken  to 
build  such  an  immense  vessel  in  anticipation  of 
a  flood  which  was  to  come  at  the  end  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years.  But  the  venerable 
patriarch  did  not  pause  in  his  labor.  He  believed 
God,  and  no  taunts  of  the  wicked  could  move  him. 
All  things  moved  forward  as  they  had  done.  The 
seasons  came  and  went  and  years  passed  away.  The 
violence  of  man  knew  no  pause,  and  lust  and 
carnage  waxed  more  intense.  Noah  continued 
his  work,  and  as  a  "preacher  of  righteousness" 
admonished  guilty  men  to  repent  before  the  fear- 
ful doom  should  come  upon  them.  But  no  man 
heeded  his  message.  Sunken  in  sensuality,  given 
over  to  hardness  of  heart  and  debasement  of 
life,  they  rushed  on  recklessly  in  their  career  to 
ruin. 

At  length  the  ark  was  completed.  It  was  stored 
with  provisions.  Noah  and  his  family  entered  it; 
and,  after  them,  from  the  four  quarters  of  the 
globe  and  the  heavens,  came  the  living  animals, 
two  by  two,  and  took  their  appointed  places  in 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  45 

peace  in  the  vast  fabric  provided  for  their  accom- 
modation. A  feeling  of  awe  must  have  passed 
through  the  minds  of  the  world's  guilty  and  reck- 
less population  as  they  saw  the  air  darkened  by 
the  flying  birds  which  swept  into  the  ark,  and  as 
they  beheld  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  of  the  for- 
est, the  gentle  and  ferocious,  in  one  magnificent 
procession,  defiling  into  the  ponderous  structure 
with  order  and  harmony.  The  ark  was  filled ;  its 
door  was  shut ;  God  became  the  protector  of  its 
inmates. 

Seven  days  still  passed  by,  and  all  things  con- 
tinued as  they  were.  Men  gazed  upon  the  closed 
and  guarded  edifice,  and  then  plunged  into  their 
sins.  All  was  tumult  and  crime  and  wilder  gayety 
than  ever.  "  They  ate,  they  drank,  they  married, 
they  were  given  in  marriage,  until  the  day  that 
Noah  entered  the  ark,  and  the  flood  came,  and 
destroyed  them  all." 

At  last  there  came  a  night  of  darkness.  Heavy 
clouds  piled  their  dense  masses  upon  masses,  and 
pealing  thunder  shook  the  foundations  of  the 
solid  globe.  Forked  and  glaring  lightning  blazed 
over  the  earth,  succeeded  by  a  deeper  darkness 
than  before.  Sleep  forsook  every  eyelid,  and  every 
man's  heart  quaked  for  fear.  In  gloom  and  alarm 
they  waited  through  that  long  night  for  the  morn- 
ing.    But  no  morning  rose  upon  them.    The  hour 


46  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

for  the  day  introduced  a  wilder  tumult  of  the 
elements  than  the  night  had  known.  Peal  fol- 
lowed peal  until  it  seemed  that  the  heavens  were 
shattered.  Crash  succeeded  crash  until  the  earth 
seemed  to  be  rent  asunder.  Then  came  the  del- 
uge. "  The  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of 
the  great  deep  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of 
heaven  were  opened."  Torrents,  huge  volumes  of 
water,  descended  from  above;  while  from  their 
deep  bed  the  waters  of  the  ocean  rose  and  rolled 
in  overwhelming  violence  across  the  earth.  They 
shook  the  mountains  as  they  dashed  against  them, 
and  the  white  spray  was  hurled  over  their  tower- 
ing crests.  Human  habitations  were  whelmed  by 
the  advancing  flood.  Towns  and  cities  and  all 
the  massive  works  of  art  and  skill  disappeared, 
like  grain  before  the  sickle  of  the  reaper.  Beasts 
and  every  living  thing  sunk  under  the  engulfing 
waves.  The  fowls  of  heaven  were  dashed  with 
stunning  force  to  the  earth.  Onward  rolled  the 
surging  waters.  The  ancient  forests  fell  before 
them.  The  wrecks  and  ruins  of  proud  empires 
were  borne  afar.  "And  every  living  substance 
was  destroyed  which  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
ground,  both  man,  and  cattle,  and  the  creeping 
things,  and  the  fowl  of  the  heaven :  and  they 
were  destroyed  from  the  earth  ;  and  Noah  only 
remained  alive,  and  they  that  were  with  him  in 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  47 

the  ark."  A  globe  of  water  swung  through  the 
heavens,  with  only  one  dark,  moving  substance 
upon  it,  the  solitary  ark  of  the  patriarch,  con- 
veying the  sole  survivors  of  the  old  world  to  be 
the  pioneers  of  the  new  world. 

Thus  has  the  second  scene  in  the  world's  great 
drama  passed  before  us,  with  its  warning  and 
instruction.  It  reads  to  us  the  solemn  lesson  that 
all  men  must  die.  Great  was  the  age  of  the  ante- 
diluvians ;  but  the  history  of  each  one  closes  with 
the  comprehensive  and  personal  phrase,  "  And  he 
died."  "  All  the  days  that  Adam  lived  were  nine 
hundred  and  thirty  years:  and  he  died."  He 
lived  to  witness  the  dire  effects  of  his  sin  and  to 
mourn  in  bitterness  for  it.  He  saw  nine  genera- 
tions of  his  children  peopling  the  smitten  earth, 
and  he  saw  how  from  one  sin  a  race  became  cor- 
rupt. Methuselah  lived  nine  hundred  and  sixty- 
nine  years ;  and  he  died.  "  Yea,  though  a  man 
live  a  thousand  years  twice  told,  yet  hath  he  seen 
no  good  :  do  not  all  go  to  one  place  ?"  "  It  is 
appointed  unto  men  once  to  die." 

We  learn  also  that  human  nature,  ivhen  unre- 
strained, is  prone  to  excesses  in  sin.  What  a  scene 
of  depravity  is  given  in  the  history  of  the  ante- 
diluvian world  !  A  whole  race,  with  few  excep- 
tions, was  given  up  to  wildest  lusts  and  crimes. 
At  last,  one  man  alone  remained  faithful  to  God. 


48  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

"  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great 
in  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagination  of  the 
thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually." 
Thus  it  is  with  man  unrestrained.  His  tendency 
is  downward.  He  is  of  the  earth,  earthy.  Nor  is 
he  satisfied  with  being  earthy;  he  must  grovel. 
Sin  leads  on  to  excess.  It  corrupted  man  so  that 
God  repented  that  he  had  made  him.  It  was  be- 
cause the  world  was  deluged  with  sin  that  it  had 
to  be  deluged  with  water. 

Again,  we  learn  from  the  fate  of  the  antedi- 
luvians that  God  regards  sin  with  abhorrence.  It 
was  then  terribly  expressed.  It  was  expressed 
when  he  drove  man  out  of  paradise  and  guarded 
its  gates  with  the  flaming  cherubim;  when  he 
cursed  the  sinners  and  cursed  the  earth  that  they 
trod  upon.  But  it  was  more  impressively  ex- 
pressed when  he  sunk  the  whole  world  under  the 
flood.  Six  generations  of  living  men  thronged 
the  earth  with  a  mighty  population.  Two  thou- 
sand years  had  accumulated  great  works  of  genius, 
power  and  art.  Populous  cities,  with  their  strong 
walls  and  palaces,  had  sprung  into  being.  All 
over  the  world  were  cultivated  fields,  homes  of 
men,  millions  of  hearts  full  of  life  and  hope.  But 
it  mattered  not ;  God  could  not  put  up  with  their 
aggravated  sins,  he  abhorred  those  workers  of 
iniquity.     So  he  opened  the  windows  of  heaven, 


THE  ANTEDILUVIAN.  49 

and  broke  up  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep,  and 
with  a  wild  and  universal  deluge  swept  them  all 
away.  He  cleansed  the  earth  of  its  wickedness. 
He  whelmed  in  one  promiscuous  and  awful  ruin 
the  race  of  man  and  its  works.  The  marks  of 
that  fearful  flood,  in  the  scarred  rocks,  in  the 
changes  on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  are  so 
many  enduring  memorials  of  God's  abhorrence 
of  sin. 

Lastly,  we  are  reminded  of  God^s  faithfulness  to 
his  friends.  Amid  the  prevalent  wickedness,  he 
did  not  overlook  that  one  man  of  prayer  who 
alone  maintained  religion  on  the  earth.  He  fore- 
told him  of  the  flood  and  taught  him  to  prepare 
for  it.  For  one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  amid 
the  taunts  of  men,  God  upheld  him  and  gave  him 
unwavering  confidence  in  the  promise.  When  the 
ark  was  finished,  and  the  aged  patriarch  had  re- 
tired within  it,  God  shut  him  in  and  guarded  him 
from  the  assaults  of  the  wicked  who  during  the 
seven  days  of  suspense  hung  around  it.  God  was 
with  him  during  the  fearful  days  of  the  deluge. 
His  hand  guided  the  mighty  fabric  as  it  floated 
over  the  sunken  world,  with  its  precious  freight, 
the  sole  surviving  relic  of  the  antediluvian  days. 
God  is  ever  faithful  to  his  friends. 

Here  we  bid  adieu  to  our  earth  as  it  first  existed. 
We  look  out  on  the  shoreless  sea  where  once  were 


50  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

the  homes  and  works  of  a  multitudinous  popula- 
tion. Will  the  world  remain  forever  whelmed, 
or  will  it  appear  again  from  those  overflowing 
floods? 


EPOCH  III. 
THE  PATRIAKCHAL. 


THE  PATRIARCHAL. 


Like  the  calm  on  the  sea  when  the  rage  of  the 
tempest  has  died  away,  Hke  the  hush  on  the  fields 
when  the  storm  has  spent  its  fury,  is  the  gentle 
patriarchal  epoch  after  the  turbulent  antediluvian 
days.  Conflict,  oppression,  violence,  and  vice,  are 
succeeded  by  peace,  order,  and  paternal  rule.  We 
look  upon  scenes  of  gentleness  and  rural  beauty. 
We  see  feeding  flocks  and  herds  tended  by  faith- 
ful servants,  scattered  over  the  verdant  meadows 
and  by  the  crystal  streams.  We  behold  the  white 
pavilions  of  the  patriarchs  pitched  by  the  borders 
of  shadowing  groves,  while  near  them  are  the 
liumbler  tents  of  their  retainers.  It  is  the  mild 
pastoral  age,  an  age,  however,  of  checkered  events 
and  not  without  its  stirring  annals. 

After  a  year's  confinement  in  the  ark,  Noah 
and  his  family  and  all  the  animals  went  forth  to 
inhabit  again  the  world  that  had  been  deluged. 
The  vestiges  of  the  former  earth  had  disappeared. 
Its  mighty  population,  its  works  of  skill  and 
grandeur,  its  cultivated  fields,  its  towns  and  cities, 

5a 


54  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS, 

all  had  utterly  perished.  Naught  remained  but 
the  bare  mountains  and  the  broad  territory  torn 
and  scarred  by  the  rushing  flood.  They  went 
forth,  those  few  survivors,  with  wonder  and  grati- 
tude, again  to  possess  and  people  the  renovated 
earth.  The  aged  patriarch  at  once  reared  an 
altar,  and  the  prayer  of  thanksgiving  ascended 
with  the  smoke  of  sacrifice.  God  was  pleased 
with  the  offering,  and  immediately  vouchsafed 
gracious  promises  to  Noah  and  his  sons,  conferred 
upon  them  higher  prerogatives  than  he  had  be- 
fore conferred  upon  Adam,  and  entered  into  holy 
covenant  with  them.  The  bow  on  the  clouds, 
overarching  the  earth,  became  the  signet  and 
memorial,  from  that  time,  through  every  age,  of 
the  faithfulness  of  God.  The  joyous  seasons  re- 
turned again,  traversing  the  world  with  their  per- 
petual round  of  blessing,  the  varied  gifts  and 
bounties  of  Providence,  hymning  in  every  zone 
their  harmonic  and  delightful  chorus.  Verdure 
again  clothed  the  drenched  earth,  and  the  hills 
and  valleys  smiled  with  their  antediluvian  beauty. 
The  beasts  and  birds  departed  to  the  places  that 
were  suited  to  their  nature,  subject  to  the  domin- 
ion and  impressed  with  the  awe  of  man.  The 
patriarch  and  his  sons,  invested  with  supreme 
lordship  over  the  world,  inspired  by  the  promises 
of  their  Maker  and  by  the  rapid  progress  in  the 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  55 

vegetable  world,  engaged  in  the  labors  and 
duties  of  life.  They  reared  their  habitations, 
planted  vineyards,  tended  their  flocks  and  herds, 
and  gradually  established  the  manners  and  insti- 
tutions of  a  new  civilization.  Their  descendants 
spread  abroad,  and  by  degrees  the  earth  was  peo- 
pled anew.  The  old  patriarch,  who  had  lived  six 
centuries  before  the  flood,  lived  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after  it,  and  so  attained  a  greater 
age  than  that  of  any  other  man  since  that  re- 
markable event.  From  that  time  the  period  of 
human  life  was  greatly  shortened. 

For  many  years  after  the  deluge  the  form  and 
customs  of  society  were  simple.  Noah,  for  whose 
sake  God  had  preserved  alive  the  few  survivors 
of  the  ancient  world,  was  doubtless  revered  by 
his  descendants,  who  paid  high  respect  to  his 
authority  and  instruction.  His  sons,  Shem,  Ham 
and  Japheth,  whose  posterity  respectively  inhabited 
Asia,  Africa  and  Europe,  also  exercised  patriarchal 
authority ;  and  for  a  while  the  institutions  of  so- 
ciety and  the  arts  of  life  prosperously  advanced. 

But  alas!  scenes  of  sin  and  tumult  appeared, 
blighting  the  promise  of  the  new  world.  The 
earth  does  not  seem  to  be  the  native  clime  of 
virtue  and  religion.  Even  the  flood  did  not 
permanently  cleanse  and  purify  it.  The  severe 
lessons  of  that  great  calamity  were  forgotten  or 


66  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

disregarded  even  within  the  lifetime  of  Noah. 
His  great-grandson  followed  the  example  of  the 
antediluvian  giants,  broke  away  from  the  patri- 
archal rule,  and  assumed  unlawful  and  violent 
authority.  He  is  represented  as  "  a  mighty  hunter 
before  the  Lord."  He  was  a  bold  hunter  of  men, 
a  strong  and  reckless  oppressor.  He  gathered 
to  himself  wild  and  lawless  spirits  and  assaulted 
and  subjugated  others.  He  set  up  his  own  au- 
thority as  supreme,  and  he  became  a  daring 
usurper  and  tyrant.  Under  his  leadership,  prob- 
ably, the  project  was  formed  of  erecting  on  the 
plain  of  Shinar  ^'  a  city,  and  a  tower  whose  top 
should  reach  unto  heaven."  The  object  of  this 
bold  design  was  to  create  an  important  metropolis 
which  should  be  the  center  of  power  and  in- 
fluence, the  capital  of  the  world. 

Nimrod  was  probably  moved  to  the  under- 
taking by  a  desire  to  consolidate  his  power  and 
to  gratify  his  pride.  The  tower  was  to  be  his 
fortress,  and  from  that  stronghold  he  intended 
to  march  forth  on  a  career  of  conquest  and 
dominion.  His  followers  desired  to  accomplish 
something  which  would  render  them  illustrious ; 
and  all  who  engaged  in  the  enterprise  supposed 
that  it  would  tend  to  prevent  the  inhabitants  of 
the  world  from  being  "  scattered  abroad  upon  the 
face  of  the  whole  earth."     As  this  design  became 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  57 

known,  we  can  imagine  that  people,  near  and  far, 
thronged  to  the  rising  city  and  joined  in  the 
building  of  the  lofty  tower.  Multitudes  of  work- 
men swarmed  over  the  fields,  preparing  the  bricks 
and  cement,  and  other  multitudes  bore  them  to 
the  artizans  who  were  erecting  the  walls.  So 
the  gigantic  undertaking  went  forward,  story 
rising  above  story,  until  indeed  it  seemed  to  as- 
pire to  heaven.  It  was  all  displeasing  to  God. 
It  was  planned  with  no  reference  to  his  desire 
and  was  in  distinct  opposition  to  his  purpose. 
"  Man  proposes ;  God  disposes."  By  the  exercise 
of  his  power  he  brought  the  whole  thing  to 
naught.  He  touched  the  lips  of  the  builders 
and  confused  their  language,  "  so  that  they  could 
not  understand  one  another's  speech."  This  con- 
fusion of  tongues  confused  their  plans  and  la- 
bors. One  could  not  comprehend  what  another 
wanted.  At  once,  and  of  necessity,  they  ceased 
the  building  and  were  scattered  abroad  over  the 
world.  Thus  God  turned  the  counsels  of  the 
impious  men  against  themselves  and  secured 
the  very  result  against  which  they  conspired. 
We  hear  no  more  of  the  arrogant  hunter.  The 
clamor  caused  by  the  miraculous  confusion  of 
tongues  gave  that  tower  a  name  which  it  has 
borne  ever  since :  the  tower  of  Babel.  Its  riven 
and  blasted  pile  stands  in  ruin  on  the  sterile 


68  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

plain  of  Babylonia,  a  monument  of  the  folly  of 
man  and  of  the  divine  retribution. 

This  dispersion  of  the  human  family,  while 
it  was  necessary  for  its  growth  and  sustenance 
and  also  that  the  broad  territories  of  the  earth 
might  be  peopled  and  cultivated,  seems  to  have 
produced  an  unfortunate  effect  as  to  their  spirit- 
ual interests.  As  men  retreated  from  the  sacred 
places  of  antiquity,  they  seemed  to  forget  the 
lessons  of  the  past,  to  forget  their  relation  to  God. 
Idolatry,  in  various  forms,  assumed  the  place 
of  true  worship,  until  the  religion  of  the  earliest 
patriarchs  was  threatened  with  extermination. 
The  pastoral  life  led  men  to  observe  and  reflect 
upon  the  objects  and  powers  of  nature;  and 
as  faith  in  God  died  out  of  their  minds,  very 
naturally  they  came  to  deify  and  adore  the  invis- 
ible power,  or  the  object  in  which  divinity  appa- 
rently resided.  Hence  the  hosts  of  heaven  were 
worshiped ;  temples  and  altars  were  built  to  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  from  consecrated  places 
incense  arose  to  the  celestial  orbs.  A  lower  grade 
of  idolatry  consisted  in  the  worship  of  man-made 
images,  to  which  a  degeneracy  of  manners  and 
character  directly  led. 

In  order  that  his  name  and  worship  might  be 
honored  and  perpetuated,  God  determined  to  call 
forth   Abraham,  a  godly  man,  from   all   others, 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  59 

and  to  make  of  him  a  mighty  nation  which  amid 
the  prevaiUng  idolatries  should  maintain  true 
religion  in  the  world.  This  call  introduces  us 
to  a  new  chapter  in  patriarchal  history.  A  succes- 
sion of  eminent  men  appeared,  whose  names  are 
the  most  distinguished  in  the  world's  annals : 
Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  the  fathers  of  the  Hebrew 
nationality,  the  founders  of  the  Hebrew  theocracy. 
Their  names  and  their  influence  coexist  with  the 
race,  being  honored  by  Jew,  Christian,  and  Mo- 
hammedan. Foremost  of  these  is  Abraham,  whose 
name  is  reverenced  in  many  lands,  who  is  claimed 
as  the  patriarch  of  various  religious  dynasties, 
who  is  beloved  as  the  head  of  "  the  chosen  people," 
the  prince  of  the  great  Hebrew  commonwealth ; 
who  has  been,  and  is  yet  to  be  more  widely, 
reverenced  as  the  "  Father  of  the  faithful  "  among 
Jew^s  and  Gentiles,  who,  in  every  land,  shall 
become  partakers  of  his  faith.  Israel,  "a  name 
divinely  blest,"  recalls  hallowed  memories  of  the 
Church  through  successive  ages,  when  they  who 
have  been  "  Israelites  indeed  "  have  borne  testi- 
mony to  their  faith,  while  it  carries  us  forward 
to  the  time  when,  with  "  the  whole  Israel  of  God," 
we  shall  stand  on  the  Mount  Zion  above. 

We  turn  with  pleasure  to  the  artless  story  of 
the  patriarchal  times.  Those  faithful  men  were 
not  without  their  frailties  and  faults.     The  sacred 


60  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

narrative  does  not  represent  them  as  demigods, 
nor  yet  men  of  perfect  character  or  Hfe.  It  sets 
them  before  us  as  those  who  loved  God  and  who 
were  kept  by  him,  and  needed  to  be  kept,  in  the 
way  of  righteousness.  Their  life  was  a  simple 
one,  the  life  of  wandering  shepherds,  yet  it  w^as  a 
life  of  independence  and  nobility. 

They  were  Fathers,  exercising  paternal  author- 
ity and  watchfulness  over  their  great  households, 
regulating  the  domestic  and  social  customs  of  all, 
and  consulted  freely  by  every  individual  under 
their  care. 

They  were  Priests,  presiding  over  and  leading 
in  the  worship  of  God,  appointing  the  sacred 
festivals,  and  offering  for  all  the  accustomed 
sacrifices. 

They  were  Chiefs,  supreme  in  their  rule,  main- 
taining justice  and  punishing  wickedness,  train- 
ing their  servants  for  the  duties  of  war  and  going 
forth  at  their  head  to  battle,  forming  alliances 
with  kings  and  surrounding  patriarchs,  and  exer- 
cising with  undisputed  right  the  prerogatives  of 
sovereignty.  Opulent  in  their  extensive  herds 
and  flocks,  their  treasures  and  servants,  they  pre- 
served their  freedom  and  were  able  to  repel  acts 
of  violence.  They  w^ere  not  merely  men  of  un- 
cultivated manners  and  rude  but  generous  bear- 
ing ;  but  with  their  generosity  there  was  united  a 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  61 

politeness  and  a  magnanimity  which  made  them 
the  compeers  of  kings  who  lived  in  palaces. 
They  were  characterized  by  bravery  and  piety, 
and  were  respected  or  feared  by  those  who  had 
acquaintance  and  intercourse  with  them.  In  their 
trembling  tents  the  law  of  God  was  reverenced, 
and  by  their  builded  altars  they  recognized  his 
authority  and  their  obligations. 

They  were  heroes,  not  in  the  diminutive, 
worldly  sense,  not  by  the  superiority  of  brute 
force,  but  by  a  higher  and  holier  calling — their 
walk  with  God.  Theirs  was  the  heroism  of  faith ; 
a  heroism  celebrated  by  the  inspired  writer  in  a 
roll-call  of  the  heroes,  two  thousand  years  after 
their  time,  and  which  has  animated  the  people  of 
God  in  every  age.  They  looked  upon  themselves 
as  pilgrims  and  strangers  upon  earth.  While  so- 
journing in  a  land  not  their  own  and  dwelling  in 
tents,  they  looked  for  the  city  which  hath  the 
foundations,  w^hose  builder  and  maker  is  God. 
They  lived  as  in  the  constant  presence  of  God; 
their  footsteps  were  guided  by  his  hand,  and  holy 
angels  encamped  round  about  them.  On  every 
hand  the  world  was  becoming  polluted  with 
wickedness  and  the  rites  of  a  profane  idolatry; 
but  the  soil  which  they  occupied  was  sacred  to 
God,  and  in  their  tabernacles  was  preserved  the 
early  faith  and  the  primitive  worship.     In  what- 


62  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

ever  relation  of  life  we  behold  them,  the  Hebrew 
patriarchs  have  a  character  unique  and  interest- 
ing. There  is  the  same  simplicity  of  manners, 
the  same  regard  for  the  rights  and  welfare  of 
others,  the  same  subdued  heroism,  the  same  rever- 
ence for  God.  Wandering  over  the  plains  of 
Canaan,  sojourning  in  the  capitals  of  kings,  abid- 
ing at  their  rural  residences,  they  still  bear  the 
same  lineaments  and  stand  forth  peculiar  and 
venerable  among  those  who  surround  them. 

Illustrations  of  their  character,  and  of  the  di- 
vine love  for  them,  abound  in  the  sacred  history 
of  their  lives.  At  the  call  of  God,  Abraham  for- 
sook home  and  kindred  and  native  land,  the  asso- 
ciations of  his  youth  and  manhood  and  the  graves 
of  his  fathers,  and  went  forth  into  a  strange  land, 
*'not  knowing  whither  he  went."  Relying  im- 
plicity  oh  the  Being  who  summoned  him,  he 
knew  no  discouragement  and  his  faith  did  not 
falter.  However  strange  his  course  may  have 
seemed  to  others,  however  dark  the  prospect  may 
have  been  to  himself,  he  pressed  on  in  the  might 
and  confidence  of  one  who  honored  the  com- 
mission of  God.  His  fidelity  was  rewarded  by 
glorious  promises :  "  In  thee  shall  all  the  families 
of  the  earth  be  blessed.  I  will  establish  my  cov- 
enant between  me  and  thee  and  thy  seed  after 
thee    in    their    generations    for    an    everlasting 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  63 

covenant,  to  be  a  God  unto  thee,  and  to  thy  seed 
after  thee." 

The  valor  and  magnanimity  of  the  patriarch  are 
seen  in  the  incident  recorded  in  the  fourteenth 
chapter  of  Genesis.  Some  of  the  wild  chiefs  of 
the  country,  like  the  Kurds  of  our  day,  had  made 
a  predatory  incursion  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 
and  were  returning  with  their  plunder,  when  they 
were  met  by  the  kings  of  the  plain,  whom  they 
defeated;  whereupon  they  pillaged  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  and  carried  away  Lot  and  his  family 
as  prisoners.  A  man  who  escaped  bore  the  tid- 
ings to  the  Hebrew  patriarch,  who  quickly  armed 
his  trained  men  and  pursued  the  marauders.  He 
fell  upon  them  by  night  and  completely  routed 
them,  recovering  their  booty  and  delivering  his 
kinsman  and  family.  On  his  return  he  met 
the  illustrious  Melchizedek,  to  whom  he  gave 
tithes  and  by  whom  he  was  blessed.  Melchizedek 
was  the  king  of  Salem  and  was  also  priest  of  his 
people,  and,  like  Abraham,  he  had  preserved  the 
knowledge  and  worship  of  the  true  God.  Further 
than  this  his  history  is  unknown ;  and  it  is  this 
fact  which  led  the  apostle  to  speak  of  him  as 
"without  father,  without  mother,  without  gene- 
alogy, having  neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end 
of  life."  Abraham  also  refused  to  retain  any  por- 
tion of  the  recovered  property,  so  showing  that  it 


64  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

was  only  from  motives  of  humanity  that  he  be- 
came a  warrior. 

Another  scene  of  interest  is  laid  at  Mamre.  It 
was  the  sultry  hour  of  noon  when  the  patriarch 
sat  at  his  tent-door,  looking  out  at  his  grazing 
herds  and  indulging  in  devout  reflection.  Three 
men  appeared  before  him,  whom  he  greeted  and 
entertained  with  gracious  patriarchal  hospitality. 
One  of  these  august  visitors  revealed  himself  to 
Abraham  as  a  divine  person  and  announced  to 
him  the  speedy  fulfdlment  of  a  precious  promise. 
He  also  declared  to  that  "  friend  of  God  "  the  pur- 
pose of  his  coming  to  the  earth  at  that  time — the 
investigation  of  the  wickedness  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  The  sympathies  of  the  patriarch  were 
roused  by  the  announcement.  He  knew  the  guilt 
of  those  cities,  and  he  feared  for  their  fate,  es- 
pecially for  his  friends  who  were  residing  there. 
He  made  an  intercession  in  their  behalf,  perhaps 
the  most  touching,  affectionate,  confiding,  preva- 
lent, in  all  the  history  of  human  prayer ;  reveal- 
ing, on  the  one  hand,  the  condescension  and 
mercy  of  God,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  tender- 
ness and  the  might  of  the  humble  suppliant. 
With  characteristic  devotion  and  faith,  that 
holy  man  stood  between  the  offending  cities  and 
their  offended  Monarch,  and  by  the  power  of  inter- 
cession reduced  the  number  frord  fifty  to  ten  for 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  65 

whose  sake,  if  they  could  be  found  in  those  cities, 
God  promised  to  spare  them.  But  ten  righteous 
persons  could  not  be  found  in  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
rah, and  those  cities  were  doomed. 

On  the  next  morning,  Abraham  went  to  the 
place  where  he  had  stood  before  the  Lord,  and 
there  he  beheld  a  sight  which  baffled  description. 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  were  wrapped  in  sheets  of 
devouring  flame.  Out  of  heaven  the  Lord  rained 
brimstone  and  fire  upon  them;  and  the  people 
and  all  the  buildings  of  those  cities  and  the  plain 
on  which  they  stood  were  consumed  in  the  ter- 
rible conflagration,  the  smoke  of  which  rolled  up 
like  the  smoke  of  a  mighty  furnace. 

The  patriarch  bowed  in  holy  fear  and  sub- 
mission before  the  Lord  his  God.  Afterward 
came  the  memorable  trial  of  his  faith.  Unex- 
pectedly, when  he  was  enjoying  the  prospect  of  a 
calm  old  age,  with  the  son  who  had  been  given  to 
him  in  fulfillment  of  the  promise,  he  received  a 
command  from  God  to  take  that  son,  and  to  sac- 
rifice him  as  a  burnt  offering  on  a  mountain  of 
Moriah.  Startling,  dreadful,  as  the  command 
must  have  been,  Abraham  obeyed.  Early  in 
the  morning,  he  set  out  on  the  mournful  journey 
to  Moriah.  The  parting  of  Isaac  that  morning 
with  his  mother,  the  unconsciousness  of  the  youth, 
must  have  nearly  broken  the  heart  of  the  old 


66  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

man.  But  he  knew  in  whom  he  believed.  His 
soul  was  stayed  upon  the  Almighty.  For  three 
days  they  journeyed  to  the  mountain.  Leaving 
the  servants  at  the  foot,  the  father  and  the  son 
toiled  up  the  rugged  ascent,  Isaac  bearing  the 
wood,  Abraham  the  fire  and  the  knife.  Suddenly, 
Isaac  spake :  "  My  father,  behold  the  fire  and  the 
wood ;  but  where  is  the  lamb  for  a  burnt  offer- 
ing ?"  "  My  son,"  replied  the  smitten  father,  "  God 
will  provide  himself  a  lamb  for  a  burnt  offer- 
ing." Reaching  the  appointed  place,  the  altar 
was  built,  the  wood  was  laid  in  order  upon  it,  and 
Isaac  was  bound  and  placed  upon  the  wood,  and 
then  the  father  raised  aloft  the  knife  for  the  fatal 
blow.  The  startling  voice  of  God,  speaking  in 
that  lonely  place  and  forbidding  the  sacrifice, 
alone  arrested  the  uplifted  arm,  and  the  gleaming 
blade  fell  ringing  by  the  altar.  The  wonderful 
faith  of  the  patriarch  was  fully  tested,  and  from 
that  time  he  became  the  acknowledged  "  Father 
of  the  faithful."  Additional  divine  blessings  were 
then  pronounced  upon  him. 

Not  long  after  this  Sarah  died,  and  Abraham 
buried  her  in  the  cave  of  the  field  of  Machpelah, 
which  he  purchased,  in  the  manner  of  a  prince, 
from  the  sons  of  Heth.  There,  when  he  came 
to  die,  "  in  a  good  old  age,  an  old  man,  and  full 
of  years,"  the  patriarch  himself  was  buried.     In 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  67 

the  simple  manner  of  the  patriarchal  age,  Isaac 
lived,  a  man  of  gentle  and  unobtrusive  character, 
and,  in  advanced  life,  was  "gathered  unto  his 
people,"  and  buried  in  the  same  cave  of  Machpe- 
lah.  There  too,  after  a  life  of  romantic  interest, 
with  mournful  ceremonies,  the  embalmed  body 
of  the  patriarch  Jacob  was  deposited  by  his  weep- 
ing sons. 

Of  the  lives  of  the  twelve  patriarchs,  the  heads 
of  the  great  tribes  of  Israel,  that  of  Joseph  is 
by  far  the  most  interesting,  possessing  the  mingled 
charm  of  fiction  and  truth  of  history,  and  de- 
picting in  most  artless  language  the  working  of 
divine  providence.  A  succession  of  fascinating 
and  thrilling  scenes  passes  before  us.  An  upright 
youth  is  torn  from  a  tender  father  by  fraternal 
violence;  a  captive  slave  in  a  strange  land,  he 
is  thrust  unjustly  into  prison  ;  he  becomes  the 
acting  head  of  a  populous  and  powerful  empire, 
swaying  its  destinies  with  prophetic  wisdom  and 
bringing  about  a  social  revolution  unmatched 
in  historic  annals.  The  brethren  who  sold  him 
into  Egypt,  by  stress  of  famine  bow  before  him ; 
a  mutual  recognition  takes  place,  and  the  whole 
patriarchal  family  makes  a  settlement  in  a  part 
of  the  Egyptian  realm.  Peaceful  and  honored 
was  the  death  of  the  noble  and  gentle  Joseph, 
mourned  alike  by  Hebrew  and  Egyptian. 


68  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

Here  we  take  our  leave  of  the  peculiar  patri- 
archal epoch  and  of  that  succession  of  distin- 
guished names  which  illustrated  and  graced  it. 
It  has  left  to  us  its  lessons  of  warning  and 
instruction. 

The  daring  career  of  Nimrod  shows  us  how  slow 
men  are  to  profit  by  the  judgments  of  the  past. 
The  marks  of  the  flood  were  not  effaced  before 
he  renewed  the  wickedness  of  the  antediluvian 
times. 

The  fate  of  BabeVs  builders  shows  us  how 
God  can  turn  the  plans  of  wicked  men  against 
themselves,  and  from  their  temporary  success 
secure  his  wise  and  permanent  designs. 

The  results  of  selfishness  are  set  forth  in  the 
history  of  Lot  He  chose  the  rich  plains  of  Sodom 
for  his  pasture-grounds  when  Abraham  gener- 
ously offered  him  his  choice;  he  pitched  his 
own  tent  toward  Sodom,  and  he  wellnigh  per- 
ished in  the  terrible  ruin  of  the  place.  Idolaters 
and  proud  foes  of  Israel,  children  of  incest,  were 
his  only  descendants. 

The  triumphs  and  blessings  of  faith  are  strik-. 
ingly  manifested  in  the  noble  life  of  the  patriarch 
Abraham.  Revered  by  the  faithful  of  every 
age,  his  name  is  the  symbol  and  representative 
of  unswerving  confidence  in  God.  In  the  ever- 
lasting covenant  which  Jehovah  made  with  him. 


THE  PATRIARCHAL.  69 

we  and  our  children  share,  with  all  who  by  faith 
are  the  children  of  faithful  Abraham.  In  the 
life  of  Jacob  we  see  the  sad  effects  of  sin.  His 
deception  of  his  father  and  betrayal  of  his  brother 
led  to  a  lifetime  of  disorder.  The  example  of 
Joseph  on  the  other  hand,  presents  the  beauty  of 
youthful  piety  and  the  blessings  which  it  secures 
in  after  life. 


EPOCH  IV. 


THE   MOSAIC. 


THE  MOSAIC. 


The  Hebrew  commonwealth  was  of  a  peculiar 
character.  Whether  we  look  at  its  founder,  its 
origin,  its  object,  its  duration,  or  its  results,  it 
stands  forth  grand  and  unique  among  the  do- 
minions of  the  world.  Commencing  fifteen  cen- 
turies before  the  Christian  era,  it  saw  empire 
after  empire  rise  and  fall  and  disappear,  while 
still  it  held  on  its  course,  swaying  the  minds 
of  a  powerful  people  by  its  authority,  and  im- 
pressing many  nations  by  its  religion  and  its 
laws.  And  now,  although  long  ago  its  capital 
and  glory  and  its  renowned  institutions  were 
lost;  although  its  judges  and  the  proud  line 
of  its  kings  exist  no  more;  and  although  the 
voices  of  its  rapt  prophets  are  hushed,  its  power 
and  influence  live  with  that  peculiar  people 
who  maintain  the  Hebrew  character  and  faith. 
Scattered  and  peeled,  driven  forth  from  the 
goodly  heritage  of  their  fathers,  oppressed  in 
every  land  and  become  a  byword  and  reproach, 
they  have  still  remained   distinct,  perpetuating 

73 


74  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

the  characteristic  features,  the  religious  rites, 
and  the  national  traits  of  their  early  ancestry. 
Though  many  times  conquered,  they  have  not 
been  exterminated ;  though  carried  as  captives 
into  strange  lands,  they  have  never  mingled 
with  their  captors — the  blood  of  the  patriarchs 
flows  uncontaminated  in  their  veins.  Few, 
comparatively,  are  the  children  of  the  promise 
who  now  inhabit  the  promised  land;  their 
songs  are  silent  on  Zion's  sacred  hill ;  the  Moslem 
mosque  sacrilegiously  crowns  the  polluted  sum- 
mit of  ]\Ioriah.  Of  late,  increased  attention 
has  been  directed  to  Palestine  as  the  predicted 
home  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  thousands  of 
emigrants  have  secured  land  and  built  their 
dwellings  within  sight  of  sacred  Jerusalem; 
while  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  the 
dispersed  children  of  Israel  are  looking  thither 
in  anticipation  of  the  renewal  of  the  ancient 
glory  and  the  restored  inheritance  of  their 
race. 

The  land  of  Canaan  was  early  given  to  the 
patriarch  Abraham  and  his  descendants  by 
the  purpose  and  promise  of  God.  Hard  neces- 
sity led  Jacob  and  his  sons  to  sojourn  in  Egypt, 
where  Joseph  was  then  the  prime  minister  of  state. 
But  it  was  only  for  a  season.  In  Egypt  they 
increased  so  rapidly  that  they  roused  the  jealousy 


THE  MOSAIC.  lb 

of  the  government.  The  illustrious  services 
of  Joseph  were  forgotten,  and  the  promises  of 
protection  to  his  people,  which  a  former  Pharaoh 
had  made,  were  disregarded.  A  system  of  repres- 
sion was  adopted  which  was  designed  to  crush 
the  spirit  and  check  the  growth  of  the  Israelites 
and  to  make  them  slaves  of  the  Egyptians. 
From  their  freedom  as  shepherds  they  were 
reduced  to  a  degrading  vassalage.  Exacting 
task-masters  were  appointed  over  them,  and 
menial  service  was  assigned  to  them — the  dig- 
ging of  clay,  the  making  of  bricks,  the  bearing 
of  burdens  for  their  haughty  oppressors.  "  But 
the  more  they  afflicted  them,  the  more  they 
multiplied  and  the  more  they  spread  abroad." 
Baffled  and  enraged,  the  wicked  monarch  formed 
a  murderous  scheme  for  the  destruction  of  all 
the  infant  sons  of  the  Hebrews.  His  edict  was 
overruled  by  an  all-directing  Providence  for 
the  ruin  of  the  Egyptians  and  the  emancipation 
of  the  children  of  Israel. 

As  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  with  her  attendant 
maidens,  walked  by  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  she 
saw,  floating  among  the  flags,  a  little  ark,  which 
she  opened,  and,  "  Behold !  a  male  infant, 
weeping."  Touched  by  the  crying  and  by  the 
beauty  of  the  child,  the  princess  determined  to 
adopt  him  as  her  own  and  to  educate  him  as  her 


76  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

son  and  heir.  So  Moses  became,  in  after  years, 
the  leader  and  lawgiver  of  his  own  people. 

Egypt  had  become  to  them  what  it  was  after- 
ward called  in  their  history  and  poetry,  "  the 
house  of  bondage."  Year  after  year  their  infant 
sons  were  cast  into  the  Nile ;  year  after  year  they 
were  worn  and  wasted  by  their  rigorous  servitude. 
Yet  the  people  became  attached  to  that  land,  and 
often,  after  their  exodus,  they  were  found  sighing 
to  return  to  it.  To  the  unsophisticated  Hebrews 
there  was  something  captivating  and  impressive 
in  the  proud  monarchy,  the  gorgeous  religion,  the 
learning  and  art,  of  the  Egyptians.  The  civil 
and  religious  institutions  to  which  they  were  in- 
troduced were  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  sim- 
plicity and  piety  of  the  patriarchal  methods. 
From  their  pastoral  life  on  the  peaceful  plains  of 
Canaan  they  were  brought  to  a  land  of  palaces 
and  temples  and  pyramids,  the  land  most  ad- 
vanced in  civilization  and  science.  Yet  Egypt 
was  not  their  home-land;  they  were  destined  to 
return  to  the  land  of  their  fathers,  the  land  of 
promise. 

Three  qualifications  were  requisite  in  one  who 
should  successfully  lead  the  Hebrews  forth  from 
the  country  where  they  had  suffered,  but  for 
which  they  had  a  strong  attachment,  to  their 
covenanted  inheritance  in  Canaan. 


THE  MOSAIC.   ■  77 

He  must,  in  the  first  place,  be  a  Hebrew,  lov- 
ing the  God  of  the  patriarchs,  and  devoted  to  the 
Hebrew  faith.  The  people  had  to  a  great  extent 
swung  away  from  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  and 
there  was  need  of  a  pious  and  controlling  mind 
to  bring  them  back  to  their  lost  worship. 

In  the  second  place,  he  must  be  an  Egyptian, 
well  acquainted  with  the  institutions  which  had 
captivated  the  Hebrew  mind,  and  able  to  con- 
struct a  system  which,  on  the  one  hand,  should 
not  inflame  their  prejudices,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  should  readily  secure  their  return  and  loy- 
alty to  Jehovah.  Their  residence  for  hundreds 
of  years  among  a  people  in  many  respects  their 
superiors  had  caused  them  to  become  thoroughly 
Egyptianized,  and  no  one  but  an  Egyptian  could 
have  led-  them  from  practices  of  idolatry  to  the 
true  worship  of  God. 

In  the  third  place,  it  was  requisite  that  their 
leader  should  be  acquainted  with  the  life  of  the 
desert,  so  that  he  could  guide  and  rule  the  people 
during  their  future  wanderings  of  forty  years. 

By  marvelous  provfdences  Moses  became  emi- 
nently qualified  for  this  station  and  mission. 
Nursed,  at  the  request  of  the  royal  princess,  by  his 
own  Hebrew  mother,  and  trained  during  his 
earlier  years  in  a  pious  Hebrew  family,  his  first 
and   strongest  sympathies   and    principles  were 


78  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

with  the  people  of  God  and  their  faith.  He  bore 
upon  his  person  the  sacramental  symbol  of  a 
holy  covenant  relation  with  the  God  of  his 
fathers.  No  instruction  of  after  years,  no  in- 
fluences nor  temptations  which  environed  him, 
even  in  the  palace  of  the  king  and  the  manners 
of  the  court,  could  ever  erase  from  his  mind  the 
impressions  and  truths  which  he  received  in  the 
home  of  his  childhood  and  from  a  tender 
mother's  lips. 

Adopted  by  the  daughter  of  Egypt's  monarch 
and  furnished  with  every  advantage  of  his  high 
position,  taught  by  the  wisest  instructors  of  the 
realm,  and  fitted  to  become  the  successor  of  the 
Pharaohs,  he  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of 
the  Egyptians  and  was  skilled  in  political  and 
religious  science.  His  intellectual  mind  led  him 
to  the  foremost  rank  among  the  young  scholars 
of  Egypt,  while  his  connection  with  the  royal 
family  gave  him  commanding  influence  with  his 
associates.  It  is  said  that  he  held  a  high  position 
in  the  national  armies  and  as  a  military  leader 
gained  distinguished  successes.  Familiar  with 
the  entire  structure  of  the  Egyptian  system,  he 
became  pre-eminently  qualified  for  the  mission  to 
which  he  was  assigned  among  his  people.  But 
this  was  not  all.  Burning  with  strong  desire  for 
the  deliverance  of  his  race  from  their  wretched 


THE  MOSAIC.  70 

servitude,  he  longed  to  stand  forth  in  their  behalf 
and  with  his  own  arm  strike  for  their  freedom. 
But  the  time  had  not  come.  Stung  by  the  indig- 
nities offered  to  his  brethren,  he  on  one  occasion 
passionately  resented  the  wrong,  and  then  fled 
from  Egypt. 

In  the  wilderness  of  Midian,  among  a  people 
allied  to  the  Israelites  and  who  still  preserved 
the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  true  God,  in 
the  quiet  occupation  of  a  shepherd,  he  received 
a  training  in  strong  contrast  with  that  which  he 
had  received  in  the  home  of  his  parents  or  at  the 
court  of  Pharaoh,  but  not  less  necessary.  In  the 
solitudes  of  nature,  the  illustrious  exile  from  the 
pleasures  and  emoluments  of  the  Egyptian 
capital,  was  brought  into  communion  with  God 
and  the  contemplation  of  divine  truth.  Along 
the  base  of  Sinai  and  Horeb  he  led  his  wander- 
ing flocks,  where  in  coming  years  he  was  to  lead 
the  great  hosts  of  Israel.  Here  he  experienced 
a  discipline  which  prepared  him  for  the  duties 
and  trials  of  the  wonderful  career  to  which  he  was 
destined.  There  is  not  a  life  in  sacred  or  profane 
history  of  such  thrilling  interest,  leading  through 
scenes  of  such  magnificent  and  solemn  character, 
as  the  life  of  Israel's  greatest  man.  From  his 
rescue  when  an  infant  by  the  royal  princess, 
through  his  early  education,  his  brilliant  man- 


80  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

hood,  his  lofty  station  as  the  vicegerent  of  God, 
the  suhUme  transactions  in  which  he  had  the 
most  important  part,  on  to  his  lonely  death  and 
his  unknown  burial,  there  is  the  interest  of  his- 
tory, the  pathos  of  endurance,  and  the  wonder  of 
miracle.  As  we  contemplate  his  character  we  are 
conscious  of  the  presence  of  a  superior  man — one 
of  the  noblest  and  most  honored  in  human 
annals.  He  has  boldness,  chastened  and  sub- 
dued; diffidence  that  needs  divine  encouragement; 
faith  that  never  falters ;  jealousy  for  God  and  the 
divine  law,  untiring  energy,  meekness  that  char- 
acterizes the  man.  His  life  is  a  triumph.  It 
stands  apart  from  all  others — grander,  nearer 
to  God. 

In  the  lonely  desert,  God  spake  to  him  from 
the  burning  bush  that  was  not  consumed,  de- 
claring the  divine  sympathy  for  the  suffering 
children  of  Israel  and  commissioning  Moses 
as  their  deliverer.  He  and  his  brother  Aaron 
were  warmly  welcomed  by  the  elders  of  the 
people,  and  they  entered  with  confidence  on 
their  mission.  But  their  appeal  to  Pharaoh 
was  spurned;  God  was  despised,  and  the  op- 
pression of  the  people  was  increased*  Then 
came  the  plagues.  Sweeping  over  the  doomed 
land,  one  after  another,  ten  successive  and  fear- 
ful scourges  revealed  the  power  and  vengeance 


THE  MOSAIC.  81 

of  the  Hebrews'  God.  Continuously  increasing 
in  intensity  and  virulence,  they  laid  waste  the 
kingdom  and  ruined  the  hopes  and  the  works 
of  its  people.  The  Nile,  their  chief  divinity, 
was  turned  into  blood,  bearing  death  on  its 
pestilential  floods.  Life  became  full  of  misery 
and  insupportable.  Their  cattle  were  swept 
away ;  the  products  of  the  field  were  destroyed ; 
their  persons  were  consumed  with  burning  in- 
flictions; light  was  altogether  withdrawn  from 
them,  and  their  dwellings  were  in  darkness 
that  could  be  felt.  Last  and  direst  of  all,  came 
the  plague  of  death,  when  the  firstborn  of  every 
family  in  Egypt  was  destroyed.  In  every  dwell- 
ing the  cry  of  the  dying  startled  all  the  people, 
from  the  palace  of  Pharaoh  down  to  the  lowest 
habitation ;  a  wail  of  common  anguish  went 
up  from  the  whole  afflicted  nation.  On  that 
midnight  the  haughty  king  relented.  On  that 
midnight  six  hundred  thousand  strong  men, 
Dn3j,  closed  around  the  families  of  .Jacob,  as  in 
order  and  with  rejoicing  they  moved  forth  from 
the  land  of  their  oppressors,  where  for  two  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  years  they  had  sojourned,  "  and 
there  was  not  one  feeble  person  among  all  their 
tribes."  With  a  high  hand  did  the  Lord  lead 
them  out,  going  before  them  in  a  pillar  of  cloud 
by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night. 


82  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

At  the  end  of  three  days,  Pharaoh  repented 
that  he  had  allowed  the  Israelites  to  escape, 
and  at  the  head  of  his  swarthy  warriors  he 
pursued  them.  To  the  Hebrews  it  might  well 
have  seemed  that  all  was  lost.  Behind  them 
were  the  mailed  warriors  and  the  armed  chariots 
of  their  enemy.  Before  them  was  the  impassable 
sea,  while  on  either  side  rose  frowning  mountains. 
The  courage  and  faith  of  Moses  rose  to  the  occa- 
sion. He  quieted  the  murmurs  of  the  frightened 
people.  He  calmly  received  from  God  the  com- 
mand, "  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that 
they  go  forward."  Then  the  pillar  of  the  cloud 
and  fire,  which  had  gone  before  them,  moved 
in  silent  majesty  to  their  rear,  shedding  its  bril- 
liant light  during  that  long  night  upon  the 
wakeful  Israelites  and  frowning  in  blackness 
upon  the  bewildered  armies  of  Egypt.  Moses 
stretched  forth  his  rod  over  the  sea,  and  through 
its  parted  floods  a  dry  pathway  was  formed 
for  the  passage  of  the  millions  of  Israel.  When 
the  morning  dawned,  the  waters  had  resumed 
their  usual  appearance.  On  the  farther  shore 
stood  the  triumphant  people  of  God,  while  far 
and  wide  on  the  angry  waves  floated  the  wreck 
of  Egypt's  pride  and  power — banners  that  had 
flaunted  in  the  breeze  of  yesterday,  weapons 
that  had  flashed  in  its  light,  chariots  and  horses 


THE  MOSAIC.  83 

of  war,  bodies  of  armed  men,  nobles  of  the  realm, 
and  the  crowned  king,  all  whelmed  in  the  dread- 
ful overthrow.  Mingled  with  the  anthem  of  the 
sea,  rose  the  hallelujahs  of  Israel's  hosts,  Moses 
and  Miriam  leading  their  psalm  of  victory  and 
praise. 

It  was  a  long  and  weary  discipline  through 
which  the  Hebrews  were  compelled  to  pass  before 
their  decimated  hosts  were  permitted  to  enter 
the  promised  land.  Accustomed  to  the  debasing 
influence  of  idolatrous  Egypt,  they  were  slow  to 
yield  to  the  authority  of  Jehovah,  and  so  stub- 
born were  they  that  the  Almighty  determined 
that  none  of  those  who  were  adult  at  the  exodus 
from  Egypt  should  enter  the  land  of  Canaan. 
For  forty  years  therefore  they  wandered  through 
the  desert,  until  they  were  all  buried  beneath  its 
soil.  For  forty  years  God  rained  manna  from 
heaven  around  the  camps  of  Israel  for  the  suste- 
nance of  the  people.  For  forty  years  he  passed 
before  them  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  fire 
by  night,  piloting  their  course  through  a  country 
unknown  by  them.  It  w^as  a  long,  hard  training 
that  the  nation  endured  through  those  forty 
years.  By  impressive  manifestations,  the  law 
was  given  at  Mount  Sinai.  The  tents  of  Israel 
were  pitched  near  its  base,  when  suddenly  a 
cloud   descended  and   rested   upon  its  summit, 


84  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

from  which  lightning  flashed  and  thunder 
pealed.  Silence  and  awe  held  the  watching 
multitude.  Then  came  the  clear,  piercing  note 
of  a  trumpet,  waxing  louder  and  louder,  until 
the  mountain  quaked  and  the  people  trembled. 
By  a  still,  small  voice,  soft  as  a  whisper  but  clear 
as  a  clarion,  Moses  was  summoned  to  the  presence 
of  God ;  and  then  the  law  was  announced — the 
divine  code  which  was  to  be  supreme  in  Israel 
and  which  was  to  be  authoritative  among  the 
nations.  Even  at  the  foot  of  Sinai  and  while 
Moses  was  on  the  mount  with  God,  those  per- 
verse Hebrews  engaged  in  rites  of  blasphemous 
idolatry.  And  so  it  was  in  their  painful  his- 
tory: idolatry,  murmuring,  rebellion,  character- 
ized them.  Judgment  and  mercy  characterized 
God's  treatment  of  them.  Many  times  Moses 
stood  between  the  guilty  people  and  their  offended 
Monarch,  offering  to  bear  in  his  own  person 
the  punishment  which  they  deserved,  and  inter- 
ceding for  them  with  prevalent  prayer.  At  the 
foot  of  Sinai  three  thousand  men  were  cut  down 
by  the  sword  for  their  idolatry.  At  one  time  the 
earth  opened  and  swallowed  in  its  dark  vortex  a 
whole  company  of  transgressors.  At  another 
time  a  plague  swept  away  thousands  on  thousands 
of  the  sinning  people.  Again,  fiery  serpents 
whose  bite  was  death  invaded  their  camp,  and 


THE  MOSAIC.  85 

would  have  destroyed  them  altogether  had  not 
Moses  lifted  up  among  them  a  brazen  serpent 
upon  which  if  they  looked  they  lived.  The  for- 
bearance of  God  toward  them  is  a  wonder  of  his- 
tory. Moses  proved  himself  to  be  a  patient  and 
brave  leader.  Slowly  the  disciplinary  pilgrimage 
wore  away.  The  nations  of  idolaters  were  swept 
from  their  path.  At  last,  after  Miriam  and  Aaron 
had  died,  after  a  million  graves  had  been  dug 
along  the  tedious  route,  and  all  the  adults 
who  came  out  of  Egypt  were  buried,  Moses  also 
died. 

He  was  permitted  to  behold  the  promised  land, 
but  not  to  set  his  foot  upon  it.  From  the  top  of 
Pisgah  he  looked  upon  the  Canaan  that  he  loved, 
to  whose  border,  through  incredible  hardships, 
he  had  led  the  chosen  people.  That  golden 
land,— the  land  of  their  fathers,  the  land  of  their 
future  inheritance,  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  the  garden  of  God,— lay  before  him. 
He  saw  its  verdant  fields,  its  silvery  streams, 
its  wood-crowned  hills,  the  cities  of  its  pagan  peo- 
ple with  their  works  of  skill  and  power.  He 
looked  and  longed.  But  his  toil  and  pilgrimage 
were  ended.  Alone  on  that  mountain's  crest, 
with  his  back  to  the  desert,  with  his  face  toward 
Canaan,  he  died.  And  God  buried  him.  Human 
eye  hath  not  seen  his  grave ;  human  hand  hath 


86  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

placed  no  monument  over  his  sleeping  dust.  His 
monument  is  in  his  undecaying  works.  His 
memorial  is  the  enduring  memory  of  the  people 
of  God.  The  marble  has  crumbled,  the  grandest 
structures  of  man  have  perished,  but  the  name 
and  the  deeds  of  Moses  are  immortal. 

The  design  of  the  Mosaic  commonwealth  was 
of  prime  importance.  The  raising  up  of  this 
indomitable  leader,  of  this  wise  lawgiver;  the 
succession  of  stupendous  miracles  and  drv-^adful 
judgments  which  distinguished  the  early  history 
of  Israel ;  the  promulgation  of  the  elaborate  code 
of  the  Hebrew  law ;  were  all  tributary  to  one 
simple  and  great  design :  the  'preservation  and  con- 
tinuance of  the  knowledge  and  worship  of  Almighty 
God  on  earth.  The  tendency,  as  the  Scripture 
narrative  shows,  as  the  history  and  experience 
of  man  abundantly  attest,  is  to  the  forgetfulness  of 
God.  Even  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  God,  that 
most  simple  fact,  needs  to  be  strongly  fortressed 
that  it  may  not  perish  from  among  men.  The 
antediluvians  rushed  headlong  into  atheism.  At 
the  time  of  the  flood  only  one  man  was  found  true 
to  God ;  four  centuries  after  the  deluge,  idolatry 
and  superstition  were  prevalent;  ever  since,  the 
world  has  been  alienated  from  God :  heathenism 
has  been  the  rule.  Even  now,  the  majority  of 
the  world's  population  is  in  pagan  night,  having 


THE  MOSAIC.  87 

no  knowledge  of  the  true  God.  Indeed,  it  is  a 
startling  fact,  attested  by  universal  experience 
and  history,  that  no  people  has  ever  retained,  or 
having  lost  has  ever  regained,  the  knowledge  of 
the  one  eternal  Jehovah  without  some  special  di- 
vine agency  in  their  behalf.  God  made  himself 
known  at  first  by  personal  appearance  and  com- 
munication. The  call  of  Abraham,  and  all  the 
influences  of  the  patriarchal  institution,  were  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  truth  respecting  God ;  but 
the  descendants  of  those  patriarchs  became  idol- 
aters in  Egypt,  and  the  most  severe  agencies 
which  God  could  employ  were  hardly  sufficient 
to  break  them  away  from  their  false  gods. 

Therefore  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  was 
founded,  in  which  God  became  the  national  King 
and  the  tutelary  Deity  of  that  people.  He  built 
into  the  very  structure  of  the  Hebrew  nationality 
the  knowledge  and  worship  of  himself,  so  that 
these  could  not  perish  while  the  nation  existed. 
The  government  Avas  a  theocracy.  Jehovah  was 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  State.  The  tabernacle 
was  his  palace,  and  there  he  manifested  himself 
The  prime  minister  was  the  high  priest.  The 
earthly  ruler,  whether  judge  or  king,  was  the  vice- 
roy of  God.  Disobedience  was  rebellion  against 
God.  Religious  duty  was  a  political  obligation. 
Prosperity  depended  upon  obedience  to  the  law ; 


88  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

punishment  followed  its  transgression.  Religion 
was  not  merely  the  means  of  vitalizing  and 
strengthening  the  state,  but  all  the  laws  and  reg- 
ulations of  the  state  were  made  the  bulwarks 
of  religion.  The  people  were  God's  people,  re- 
deemed by  his  arm  from  degrading  bondage, 
rescued  by  the  almighty  hand  from  their  enemies. 
The  land  of  their  inheritance  was  God's  land,  in 
which  their  residence  was  to  be  assigned  by  him 
and  from  whose  products  they  were  to  pay  per- 
petual tithes  to  him.  So  God  was  King,  and  obe- 
dience was  maintained  by  temporal  sanctions. 
Idolatry  was  treason.  The  central  principle  of 
the  theocracy,  to  which  everything  else,  religious 
or  secular,  was  subordinate,  was  the  authority 
and  worship  of  the  one  only  God,  Jehovah.  For 
this  had  wonders  been  wrought  in  Egypt.  For 
this  the  sea  was  parted.  For  this  the  law  was 
proclaimed.  For  this  went  forth  over  the  desert 
the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  the  wonder  of  the 
nations  and  the  guide  of  Israel.  For  this  the 
tabernacle  was  set  up  wherein  God's  glory  abode, 
and  the  Levites  were  the  palace  guards.  For  this 
was  the  succession  of  miracles,  the  repetition  of 
judgments  and  mercies,  revealing  alike  the  justice 
and  the  compassion  of  God.  For  this  were  estab- 
lished the  ordinances  and  observances  which  char- 
acterized the  Hebrew  people. 


THE  MOSAIC.  89 

The  result  has  manifested  the  wisdom  of  God. 
Never  from  the  days  of  Moses  have  the  knowledge 
and  the  worship  of  the  one  only  living  and  true 
God  been  lost  on  earth.  There  always  has  been 
an  Israel,  a  true  people  of  the  Lord,  who  have 
loved  his  character  and  reverenced  his  law.  And 
he  is  to  be  more  widely  known  and  loved :  "  The 
earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord, 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

The  world  owes  much  to  Moses  and  to  the  com- 
monwealth of  which  he  was  the  founder  and  head. 
Kaised  up  in  a  wonderful  manner  and  fitted  for 
his  high  commission,  that  great  and  good  man 
fulfilled  his  trust.  Never  was  there  another  man 
with  whom  Jehovah  seemed  to  be  so  familiar, 
never  another  who  seemed  to  have  such  prevail- 
ing influence  w4th  God :  "  There  hath  not  arisen 
a  prophet  since  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses,  whom 
the  Lord  knew  face  to  face."  He  loved  God  and 
the  people  of  God,  "  choosing  rather  to  be  evil  en- 
treated with  the  people  of  God,  than  to  enjoy  the 
pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season ;  accounting  the  re- 
proach of  Christ  greater  riches  than  the  treasures 
of  Egypt." 

Established  in  a  dark  age  and  one  of  idolatry, 
the  Hebrew  commonwealth  attained  an  influence 
and  power  which  have  to  this  day  controlled  a 
mighty  people,  while  its  effects  are  widely  wit- 


90  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

nessed  among  the  Gentile  nations  of  the  globe. 
It  was  an  economy  preparatory  to  the  more  per- 
fect one  of  Christianity,  and  without  which  the 
Christian  era  could  not  have  been  ushered  in.  The 
law  must  precede  the  gospel.  The  burning  sac- 
rifices offered  on  the  reeking  altars  of  Israel,  must 
precede  the  great  sacrifice  offered  once  for  all  on 
Calvary.  The  system  of  types  and  shadows  was 
the  herald  of  the  glorious  system  of  redemption. 


EPOCH  V. 
THE   PEOPHETIC. 


THE  PROPHETIC. 


The  prophetic  epoch  is  one  wherein  great 
events  were  transpiring,  which  also  introduces 
us  to  a  remarkable  succession  of  illustrious  men, 
and  during  which  predictions  were  uttered  that 
have  been  slowly  fulfilled  in  the  passing  of  the 
ages,  or  are  yet  to  be  fulfilled. 

There  is  a  charm  and  an  awe  which  invest  the 
inspired  prophets  of  the  Lord.  We  think  of  them 
as  a  strange,  almost  supernatural,  order,  as  they 
have  issued  forth  from  their  sacred  retreat  and 
from  communion  with  God,  clad  in  sackcloth, 
and  boldly  declaring  in  the  palaces  of  kings  and 
before  the  guilty  people  the  stern  and  dire  mes- 
sages of  Jehovah,  the  word  of  the  Lord.  It  is  of 
great  interest  to  study  their  characters  and  lives, 
to  mark  their  influence  upon  their  own  and  suc- 
ceeding times,  and  to  observe  how,  through  their 
agency,  God  arrested  the  progress  of  idolatry  and 
wickedness  and  national  corruption,  and  main- 
tained religion  and  the  ordinances  of  true  wor- 
ship. 


93 


94  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

The  prophetic  epoch  begins  with  the  wise, 
patriotic,  and  holy  Samuel,  the  judge  and  the 
priest  of  Israel.  There  were  prophets  and  pro- 
phetic utterances  before  his  time.  Abraham  and 
Jacob,  and  the  illustrious  Moses,  "  like  unto  whom 
there  hath  not  arisen  a  prophet  since  in  Israel," 
had  fulfilled  some  of  the  functions  of  the  prophetic 
office.  God  had  promised  Moses,  "  I  will  raise 
them  up  a  prophet  from  among  their  brethren,  like 
unto  thee ;  and  I  will  put  my  words  in  his  mouth, 
and  he  shall  speak  unto  them  all  that  I  shall  com- 
mand him."  But  with  Samuel  prophetism  assumed 
the  rank  and  character  of  an  institution.  In  his 
day  were  founded  the  "  schools  of  the  prophets," 
in  which,  under  the  tuition  of  aged  and  experi- 
enced prophets,  young  men  were  trained  in  sacred 
literature,  to  become  the  moral  and  religious  min- 
isters of  the  nation.  Here  they  studied  the  law 
of  Moses,  the  principles  of  the  theocracy,  that  they 
might  become  their  expounders  and  defenders, 
and  here  they  attended  to  the  science  of  sacred 
music.  There  were  hundreds  who  were  associ- 
ated and  educated  in  these  theological  schools,  by 
whose  influence,  under  the  control  of  such  instruc- 
tors as  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha,  we  may  sup- 
pose the  people  of  Israel  were,  to  a  good  degree, 
brought  back  from  the  idolatry  and  degeneracy 
which  had  widely  obtained  during  the  adminis- 


THE  PROPHETIC.  95 

tration  of  the  judges.  From  the  time  of  Samuel, 
for  about  seven  hundred  years,  the  succession 
of  godly  and  influential  prophets  was  continued, 
closing  with  Malachi,  whose  last  prophetic  words 
of  the  old  era  heralded  the  coming  of  the 
prophet-preacher  whose  solitary  voice,  sounding 
in  the  wilderness,  proclaimed  the  dawm  of  a  more 
glorious  epoch.  From  Malachi  to  the  Baptist,  a 
period  of  four  hundred  years,  no  prophet's  voice 
w^as  heard. 

The  prophetic  epoch  was  one  of  wonderful  men 
and  wonderful  works.  Along  its  glowing  history 
we  may  find  startling  incidents,  heroic  devotion, 
unwearied  fidelity  to  God  and  a  faithfulness  to 
men,  which  paused  at  no  toil  nor  sacrifice.  We 
behold  the  chariot  of  God  w4th  its  horses  of  fire 
descending  and  bearing  away  the  fearless  Elijah, 
without  death,  to  heaven.  We  catch  the  sweet 
strains  of  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel  as  he  tunes  his 
harp  to  those  songs  of  Zion  which  have  cheered  the 
Church  in  days  of  gloom  as  well  as  of  triumph .  We 
recognize  the  boldness  and  faith  of  Joel  and  Hosea 
and  Amos  and  Micah.  We  hear  the  sublime  pre- 
dictions of  the  evangelical  Isaiah  as  he  portrays 
the  Lamb  of  God,  wounded  for  our  sins,  led  to 
the  slaughter  for  our  justification.  We  are  moved 
by  the  mournful  lamentations  of  the  weeping  Jere- 
miah, and  are  roused  by  the  tragic  and  terrific 


96  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

threatenings  of  the  exiled  Ezekiel.  We  muse  with 
the  rapt  Daniel  as  visions  of  the  future  pass  grand- 
ly and  gloomily  before  him,  or  bow  to  the  lofty 
tones  of  the  adoring  Habakkuk,  or  rejoice  in  the 
cheerful  predictions  of  Haggai  and  Zechariah. 
Throughout  this  entire  period  there  is  much  to 
instruct  the  mind  and  to  stir  the  heart. 

The  Hebrew  prophets!  Let  us  seek  to  know 
who  they  were,  their  manner  of  life  and  character, 
their  mode  of  communicating  the  messages  of  the 
Lord  and  to  learn  what  we  may  of  their  history. 

The  prophets  were  inspired  men,  who  were 
divinely  commissioned  to  make  known  the  pur- 
poses of  God  and  to  predict  future  events.  "  For 
no  prophecy  ever  came  by  the  will  of  man :  but  men 
spake  from  God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost." 
In  the  earlier  days  prophets  were  called  seers, 
indicating  their  receiving  of  revelations  by  visions. 
They  were  also  called  men  of  God,  inspired  men, 
servants  and  angels  of  Jehovah,  and  watchmen. 
They  were  holy  men,  men  who  loved  God  and 
reverenced  his  law,  who  were  probably  chosen  for 
the  prophetic  office  on  account  of  their  piety. 
Sometimes  they  had  been  educated  by  older 
prophets  ;  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  Amos,  they 
were  called  to  their  ministry  from  the  common 
avocations  of  life.  Receiving  truth  from  God  by 
visions  or  by  other  modes,  they  were  impelled  to 


THE  PROPHETIC.  97 

declare  that  truth  to  those  whom  it  concerned. 
It  is  highly  probable  that  the  prophetic  office  was 
a  permanent  one ;  that  the  call  was  for  life.  It 
was  by  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  the 
prophets  addressed  men. 

Their  mission  was  of  great  importance.  It  was 
designed,  not  to  interfere  with  any  established 
institutions  of  the  theocracy,  but  to  give  vitality 
and  energy  to  all  of  them.  Provision  was  early 
made  in  the  Mosaic  law  for  the  prophetic  office, 
and  it  was  under  that  law,  and  in  its  behalf,  that 
the  prophets  spoke.  This  office  was  entirely  distinct 
from  the  priesthood.  The  latter  was  ordinary, 
the  former  was  extraordinary.  The  priests  super- 
intended and  performed  the  ritualistic  rites  and 
instructed  the  people  in  the  common  duties  of  re- 
ligion. But  when  priests  and  people  became  de- 
generate, when  formality  had  spread  through  all 
ranks,  or  idolatry  had  assumed  the  place  of  true 
worship,  then  there  was  need  of  an  agency  which 
should  summon  back  the  recreant  priest  and  the 
sinful  people,  which  should  speak  with  solemn 
rebuke  and  awful  warning  to  both,  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord.  Such  was  the  mission  of  the  prophets. 
They  were  to  stand  on  the  downward  path  and 
turn  back,  if  possible,  the  headlong  rush  of  the 
guilty  multitude.  They  were  to  reiterate  the 
claims  of  the  holy,  but  forgotten,  law,  to  declare 


98  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

the  jealousy  of  Jehovah,  to  proclaim  his  threaten- 
ings  and  to  announce  his  mercy  on  condition  of 
repentance  and  obedience.  They  were  ministers 
of  God ;  maintaining  his  authority,  guarding  the 
purity  and  permanency  of  his  sacred  ordinances. 
From  their  retired  communion  with  God,  where 
in  holy  visions  they  received  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  they  came  among  men  to  feel  the  shock  of 
sin  and  to  be  jealous  for  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  In- 
spired by  his  Spirit,  they  became  bold  in  defense 
of  his  claims. 

They  were  preachers  of  the  truth ;  proclaiming  it 
when  it  was  forgotten ;  defending  it  when  it  was 
rejected ;  explaining  it  when  it  was  obscure ;  and 
ever  urging  it  by  the  highest  motives  of  interest 
and  of  duty.  At  any  sacrifice,  at  the  cost  of  perse- 
cution and  imprisonment,  even  at  the  risk  of  life, 
they  were  to  uphold  religion  and  to  denounce 
idolatry  and  iniquity. 

They  were  watchmen :  not  only  over  the  people, 
but  over  the  monarch — over  all  the  interests  of 
the  house  of  Israel.  They  were  the  spiritual 
supervisors  and  theocratic  historians  of  the  na- 
tion. 

The  record  of  their  lives  is  the  testimony  of 
their  faithfulness.  Alone,  relying  only  upon  God, 
they  hurled  into  the  face  of  kings  the  charges  of 
their  guilt,  and  pressed  home  personal  responsibility 


THE  PROPHETIC.  99 

by  the  declaration,  "  Thou  art  the  man !"  Alone, 
they  arraigned  the  tumultuous  people  for  their  sin- 
ful courses  and  demanded  their  repentance,  lest 
the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty  should  visit  them. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  without  their  agency  the 
chosen  people  would  have  become  like  the  heathen 
nations,  and  darkness,  thick  as  that  which  brooded 
over  the  antediluvian  world,  would  have  hung 
like  a  pall  around  the  earth. 

It  was  also  a  part  of  their  mission  to  foretell 
future  events.  Prophec}',  in  the  limited  sense,  has 
been  a  strong  bulwark  of  Christianity.  The  great 
fact,  standing  distinctly  forth  on  the  promulgated 
records  of  the  Scriptures,  that  events  far  distant 
from  the  time  of  the  prophet  who  announced 
them,  events  which  only  the  divine  mind  could 
foreknow,  events  in  historic  and  still-transpiring 
series,  were  plainly  foretold  and  have  been  as 
plainly  fulfilled — this  fact  has  been  and  always 
will  be  an  impregnable  argument  for  our  holy 
religion.  The  prophets,  therefore,  acted  not  alone 
for  their  own  times  and  people,  but  for  the  uni- 
versal Church.  They  furnished  an  armory  of 
keen  weapons  for  the  use  of  Christian  heroes  in 
every  age.  They  demonstrated  the  divinity  of 
their  mission  by  the  prophetic  facts  which  they 
announced.  They  gave  proof  that  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures are  indeed  the  Word  of  God.     The  Saviour 


100  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

appealed  to  what  Moses  and  the  prophets  had 
written  concerning  himself;  and  out  of  their  own 
Scriptures  demonstrated  his  Messiahship  to  the 
unbelieving  Jews.  From  the  sure  word  of  proph- 
ecy, as  a  lamp  shining  in  a  dark  place,  Paul 
and  Peter  and  the  eloquent  Apollos  drew  their 
convincing  arguments.  To  this  source  the  fathers 
of  the  Church  in  their  conflicts  with  paganism 
and  unbelief  confidently  resorted.  By  the  proof 
from  prophecy  did  Justin  Martyr  and  TertuUian 
and  Augustine  convince  gainsayers.  By  this  has 
infidelity  in  every  age  been  put  to  silence  and 
shame.  It  furnishes  an  argument  whose  force  is 
not  diminished  by  time,  but  which  increases  by 
a  constant  accumulation  of  strength  as,  in  age  after 
age,  fulfillment  follows  fulfillment  and  prophecy  is 
found  to  be  the  utterance  of  the  all-knowing  God. 
The  mission  of  the  prophets  was  therefore  for  the 
Church  and  the  world  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  character  and  manner  of  life  of  the  prophets 
may  well  engage  our  attention.  Their  very  names 
represent  to  us  the  qualities  of  goodness  and  ex- 
alted virtue.  Moses,  Samuel,  Elijah,  Isaiah,  Jere- 
miah, Ezekiel,  Daniel,  Habakkuk,  Malachi,  and 
the  others:  holy  men,  above  reproach,  worthy 
messengers  and  prophets  of  the  Lord !  In  long 
and  illustrious  succession,  through  hundreds  of 
years,  they  appeared  as  the  maintainers  of  re- 


THE  PROPHETIC.  101 

ligion,  loyal  among  a  people  inclined  to  rebellion. 
Though  they  were  not  rich  in  the  wealth  of  the 
world,  they  esteemed  themselves  the  possessors  of 
a  priceless  inheritance,  and  the  treasures  of  a  na- 
tion could  not  have  bought  them  from  the  service 
of  God.  Though  they  were  not  exalted  to  the 
high  places  of  the  earth,  they  ranked  themselves 
as  above  kings  and  warriors,  and  they  did  not 
hesitate  to  rebuke  iniquity  wherever  it  displayed 
itself.  Though  they  loved  retirement  and  the 
lowly  walks  of  a  useful  life,  when  the  divine  call 
came  they  pressed  out  into  the  din  of  affairs  and 
had  a  hand  in  the  stirring  transactions  of  the 
world.  From  their  acquaintance  with  God,  they 
learned  to  esteem  rightly  the  great  things  of  re- 
ligion, and  the  little  things  of  the  world. 

Their  life  and  appearance  were  humble,  and 
lovers  of  pleasure  may  have  despised  them  as 
they  adhered  to  the  simplicity  of  a  holy  w^alk. 
But  no  one  despised  them  when  from  heaven 
they  gave  in  thrilling  tones  the  messages  of  Je- 
hovah. Vast  assemblages,  then,  stood  awe-struck 
before  them  and  kings  cowered  under  their  de- 
nunciations. They  were  meek  men,  but  their 
meekness  was  absorbed  by  a  glowing  zeal  and  an 
intense  devotion  when  the  spirit  of  inspiration 
moved  them.  They  were  men  of  real  piety.  The 
Spirit  who   employed  them   had   first  sanctified 


102  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

them.  They  loved  God  and  his  law,  and  they 
sought  to  lead  the  people  to  the  same  holy  love. 
For  idols  and  the  whole  system  of  idolatry  they 
cherished  a  withering  contempt,  which  they  ex- 
pressed in  graphic  and  sarcastic  language.  They 
had  no  patience  with  Hebrew  idolaters — with  the 
people  of  God  who  voluntarily  heathenized  them- 
selves: and  well  they  might  not  have.  They 
would  have  trampled  under  their  feet  every  false 
god,  and  burnt  their  polluted  altars  and  slaugh- 
tered their  impious  priests  like  victims.  They  did 
not  pause  with  the  ritual  and  ceremonies  of  the 
theocratic  code :  but  as  they  knew  the  excellence 
of  true  piet}^  they  sought  to  bring  others  to  the 
experience  of  it.  The  malice  of  men,  persecution, 
death,  were  things  which  they  did  not  take  into 
account  when  duty  was  before  them.  To  them 
all  men  were  alike :  they  saw  in  the  crowned  king 
nothing  more  of  manhood  than  in  the  humblest 
of  his  menials.  Therefore  it  mattered  not  to  them 
to  whom  their  message  was  to  be  addressed. 
Samuel  did  not  hesitate  to  rebuke  the  sinning 
Saul.  Nathan  no  more  feared  to  charge  his  grave 
crimes  upon  David  than  he  would  have  feared  to 
charge  them  upon  Uriah  had  he  been  the  guilty 
man.  Elijah  bearded  the  idolatrous  and  tyran- 
nical Ahab  wherever  he  found  him.  Jeremiah, 
in  the  palace  and  amidst  the  angry  courtiers  and 


THE  PROPHETIC.  103 

armed  guards  of  the  king,  denounced  the  wicked- 
ness of  Zedekiah. 

They  were  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power 
of  his  might.  Legions  of  angels  guarded  their 
footsteps  and  the  banners  of  archangels  waved 
around  them.  On  one  occasion,  when  a  servant 
of  Elisha  feared  for  his  master's  safety,  the  prophet 
prayed  that  his  eyes  might  be  opened,  and  "he 
saw,  and  behold,  the  mountain  was  full  of  horses 
and  chariots  of  fire  round  about  Elisha." 

Personal  success  and  prosperity  were  of  little 
moment  to  them,  but  the  welfare  of  Israel  and 
Zion's  prosperity  lay  near  their  hearts.  The  de- 
cay of  the  chosen  people,  the  desolations  which 
swept  as  divine  scourges  over  their  land,  the 
growth  of  idolatry  and  the  triumph  of  the 
heathen, — these  things  preyed  upon  their  peace 
and  destroyed  their  happiness.  With  a  fond  and 
patriotic  attachment  they  loved  their  country,  and 
there  was  not  one  of  them  who  would  not  gladly 
have  offered  himself  as  a  sacrifice  in  its  behalf 
They  were  always  jealous  for  the  interests  of  the 
nation,  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  rebuke  the 
rash  courses  and  counsels  of  its  kings,  to  denounce 
their  infamous  and  treasonable  leagues  with 
heathen  monarchs,  and  to  summon  the  people  to 
act  as  became  loyal  citizens  and  true  subjects 
of    Jehovah.      They  were   the   friends  of   order, 


104  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

justice  and  good  institutions.  They  sympathized 
with  the  oppressed,  the  widow  and  the  fatherless. 
They  maintained  the  rights  of  humanity,  the  in- 
terests of  virtue,  the  holy  ordinances  of  religion. 
Though  they  were  bold  and  severe,  the  law  of 
kindness  dwelt  in  their  hearts,  and  it  was  with 
bitter  lamentations  that  they  bewailed  the  apos- 
tasy of  the  people  and  the  necessity  that  was  upon 
themselves  to  rebuke  and  threaten. 

In  whatever  condition  we  view  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  they  have  the  same  exalted  character, 
the  same  excellence  and  purity  of  life.  Never  has 
there  existed  a  holier  order  of  men,  one  more 
worthy  the  study  and  imitation  of  others.  Far 
above  the  Jewish  people,  far  above  the  Jewish 
priests,  they  tower  in  the  greatness  and  grandeur  of 
their  eminent  character,  as  the  few  lofty  mountain 
summits  loom  in  solitary  majesty  above  all  else, 
stretching  nearer  to  heaven,  and,  when  darkness 
rests  on  things  below  them,  are  crowned  early  and 
late  with  the  glory  of  sunlight. 

The  modes  in  which  the  prophets  communicated 
the  messages  of  the  Lord  were  various.  Sometimes, 
like  orators,  they  addressed  the  listening  multi- 
tudes, in  language  of  calm  reasoning  or  in  tones 
of  impassioned  eloquence.  Thus,  Elijah,  before 
the  tumultuous  thousands  of  Israel,  spoke  as  one 
who  must  impress  the  intellect  and  move  the  feel- 


THE  PROPHETIC.  105 

ings  of  his  auditors.  "  How  long  halt  ye  between 
two  opinions  ?  If  Jehovah  be  God,  follow  him : 
but  if  Baal,  follow  him."  Sometimes,  in  the  man- 
ner of  public  heralds,  they  cried  through  the 
streets  of  the  cities,  in  wild  and  startling  voices, 
denouncing  the  coming  doom  and  calling  the 
guilty  people  to  repentance.  Thus,  in  one  of  the 
first  instances  of  foreign  missionary  labor  on  rec- 
ord, a  Hebrew  prophet  appeared  on  the  streets  of 
a  proud  and  godless  heathen  city,  crying  along 
its  populous  avenues,  as  with  the  thrilling  voice 
of  doom,  ''  Yet  forty  days,  and  Nineveh  shall  be 
overthrown !"  Sometimes,  they  waited  to  be  sum- 
moned before  nobles  and  monarchs  to  give  advice, 
and  then  seized  the  opportunity  to  deliver  their 
message.  Thus,  after  a  night  of  banqueting 
and  revelry  in  the  palaces  of  Babylon,  when 
the  sacred  vessels,  captured  from  the  Hebrew 
temple,  had  been  polluted  by  the  impious  rev- 
elers, and  a  mysterious  hand  had  come  forth 
and  startled  the  haughty  king  and  his  associates 
by  writing  their  doom  upon  the  wall  in  letters  of 
fire,  Daniel  was  summoned  before  Belshazzar, 
and  plainly  denounced  the  crimes  of  the  despot 
and  foretold  the  overthrow  of  his  power. 

At  other  times  they  expressed  by  striking  sym- 
bols the  impending  fate  of  the  guilty  people,  walk- 
ing before  them  in  sackcloth  and  with  other  exter- 


106  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

nal  marks  of  anguish.  Thus,  Jeremiah  wore 
bands  and  yokes  upon  his  neck,  to  represent  the 
servitude  of  some  nations.  Ezekiel  dug  through 
a  wall  and  carried  forth  his  household  stuff  to 
symbolize  the  actions  of  those  who  should  go  into 
captivity.  Again,  the  prophets  recorded  the  word 
of  the  Lord  in  durable  form,  to  be  preserved  as  a 
part  of  the  sacred  writings  of  the  nation.  Hence 
nearly  one-half  of  the  Old  Testament  consists  of 
their  prophetic  works,  and  to  the  prophets  we 
owe  nearly  all  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
It  is  in  their  written  works  that  we  possess  the  sweet 
and  magnificent  compositions  of  Isaiah,  his  sub- 
lime predictions  of  the  Messiah ;  the  matchless, 
mournful  elegies  of  Jeremiah,  wherein  in  plaintive 
tones  he  weeps  over  the  desolation  of  his  loved 
Jerusalem ;  the  tragic  and  solemn  visions  of  Eze- 
kiel, before  whose  prophetic  foresight  passed  the 
ruins  of  demolished  cities  and  the  departed  grand- 
eur of  proud  empires,  and  on  whose  enraptured 
sight  rose  the  Christian  commonwealth,  the  New 
Jerusalem,  the  temple  of  the  living  God.  It  is 
through  their  treasured  writings  that  we  possess 
the  wonderful  apocalypse  of  Daniel,  some  of  which 
has  been  fulfilled,  some  of  which  awaits  fulfill- 
ment; together  with  the  prophecies  of  Joel,  Na- 
hum,  Habakkuk  and  their  compeers,  forming  a 
volume  unrivaled  in  the  literature  of  the  world. 


THE  PROPHETIC.  107 

The  pei'sonal  history  of  the  prophets,  at  which 
we  can  only  glance,  opens  to  us  incidents  that 
strikingly  illustrate  their  boldness  and  faith  in 
God  and  his  distinguishing  favor  to  them.  In 
Samuel  we  see  one  who,  early  consecrated  to  the 
Lord  by  a  faithful  mother,  became  one  of  the 
most  illustrious,  as  he  was  one  of  the  most  godly, 
of  the  Hebrew  seers,  and  who,  in  an  age  when 
military  prowess  was  thought  to  be  the  first  ac- 
complishment in  a  civil  ruler,  was  raised  to  the 
judgeship  of  Israel  through  his  lofty  prophetic 
character  and  his  intrepidity  and  success  as  a 
religious  reformer. 

In  the  life  of  Elijah  we  are  presented  with  a 
rapid  succession  of  heroic  deeds  and  startling  mir- 
acles, commencing  with  the  abrupt  and  direful 
oath  before  guilty  Ahab,  "  As  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  Israel,  liveth,  before  whom  I  stand,  there  shall 
not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years,  but  according  to 
my  word ;"  and  closing  with  his  sublime  transla- 
tion from  earth  to  heaven  by  the  horses  and  chariot 
of  fire.  Perhaps  there  is  no  other  one  who  so  thor- 
oughly represents  the  spirit  of  the  prophetic 
epoch  as  this  bold  and  mysterious  prophet.  Un- 
announced, with  no  trace  of  his  pedigree  or  early 
life,  he  appears  before  the  startled  Hebrew  mon- 
arch, with  an  eye  kindled  by  the  fire  of  inspira- 
tion, with  a  voice  ringing  like  a  trumpet-call,  clad 


108  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

in  the  coarse  garb  of  his  order,  announces  liis 
stern  message,  and  passes  away.  The  lieavens 
become  like  brass  over  the  territories  of  Israel, 
and  the  earth  lies  scorched  and  desolate  beneath 
the  blaze  of  an  unclouded  sun.  Famine,  disease, 
death,  are  the  dread  results.  Three  years  and  a 
half  roll  by,  and  the  Hebrew  people  remains 
still  impenitent.  Ahab  is  their  king,  Baal  is 
their  god.  Three  years  and  a  half  roll  by, 
and  the  mysterious  seer  again  confronts  the 
impious  king.  "  Is  it  thou,  thou  troubler  of  Is- 
rael?" is  the  quick  question  of  the  maddened 
king.  "I  have  not  troubled  Israel,"  was  the 
calm  reply  of  the  prophet ;  "  but  thou,  and  thy 
father's  house,  in  that  ye  have  forsaken  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord,  and  thou  hast  followed 
Baalim."  He  then  demanded  that  the  idolatrous 
prophets,  numbering  eight  hundred  and  fifty, 
should  be  gathered  at  Mount  Carmel,  that  the 
great  question,  who  was  the  true  God,  might  be 
signally  decided.  The  mandate  of  the  prophet 
was  obeyed;  and  from  all  the  towns  of  Israel, 
prophets,  priests  and  people  thronged  on  all  the 
thoroughfares  which  led  to  the  top  of  Carmel.  On 
the  route  were  the  marks  of  Jehovah's  wrath  in 
parched  and  unproductive  fields,  in  dead  bodies 
of  famished  animals,  in  wan  and  wasted  faces 
and   forms   of  men,  women,  and   children. 


THE  PROPHETIC.  109 

An  immense  multitude  swarmed  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  sacred  mount  at  this  call  of  Elijah. 
Alone  and  friendless,  the  holy  man  stood  amidst 
the  great  throng,  while  thousands  frowned  in 
hatred  upon  him.  Like  a  bugle's  silvery  tone 
his  clear  voice  rang  out  on  the  still  air  and  over 
the  hushed  assemblage,  "  How  long  halt  ye  be- 
tween two  opinions?  If  the  Lord  be  God,  follow 
him  :  but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him."  Not  a  word 
was  spoken  in  reply.  He  then  proposed  that  two 
altars  should  be  built,  and  that  a  bullock  should 
be  laid  upon  each,  and  that  the  God  who  should 
answer  by  fire  should  be  God.  All  the  people 
answered,  "  It  is  well  spoken."  From  morning 
even  until  noon,  at  their  cursed  altar,  the  im- 
pious priests  of  Baal  invoked  the  desired  result 
from  their  god.  But  there  was  no  answer  to 
their  prayers.  Excited,  they  leaped  around  and 
upon  their  altar,  while  Elijah  mocked  them  and 
said,  "  Cry  aloud :  for  he  is  a  god ;  either  he  is 
musing,  or  he  is  gone  aside,  or  he  is  in  a  journey, 
or  peradventure  he  sleepeth,  and  must  be  awaked." 
Maddened  and  frantic,  they  shouted,  and  cut 
themselves  with  knives  and  lancets  till  the  blood 
gushed  upon  them.  But  it  was  all  in  vain.  The 
day  was  wearing  away,  and  there  was  no  voice, 
nor  reply,  nor  any  attention  to  their  cries. 

It  was  the  hour  for  the  evening  sacrifice ;  Elijah 


110  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

called  the  people  near  him.  With  twelve  stones 
he  rebuilt  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  placed  the  bul- 
lock upon  it,  and  ordered  that  four  barrels  of 
water  should  be  poured  upon  it  once,  twice,  and 
the  third  time.  Then,  with  uncovered  head  and 
uplifted  hands,  he  prayed :  "  0  Lord,  the  God  of 
Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Israel,  let  it  be  known 
this  day  that  thou  art  God  in  Israel,  and  that 
I  have  done  all  these  things  at  thy  word.  Hear 
me,  0  Lord,  hear  me !"  Thereupon,  fire  fell  from 
heaven  and  consumed  the  sacrifice  and  the  altar, 
and  all  that  was  upon  it  or  appertained  to  it, 
and  even  the  water  in  the  trench  around  it. 
With  one  accord  the  people  fell  upon  their  faces, 
and  they  said,  "  The  Lord,  he  is  God  !  The  Lord, 
he  is  God !"  The  prophets  of  Baal  were  slain ; 
and  on  the  same  day  a  great  rain  fell  upon  the 
scorched  fields  of  Israel. 

The  mantle  of  Elijah  fell  upon  his  disciple  and 
friend,  Elisha,  whose  life  was  signalized  by  mir- 
acles, as  had  been  the  life  of  the  former.  In 
deeds  of  kindness  to  the  widow  and  the  poor,  in 
vindication  of  the  authority  of  God,  in  the  re- 
vival of  religion,  in  the  tutelage  of  prophetic 
pupils,  they  spent  their  days.  Others  of  like  spirit 
succeeded  them,  who  endeavored  to  perpetuate 
among  their  people  true  spiritual  worship  of  God. 
They  were  content  to  sufier  and  to  sacrifice  all 


THE  PROPHETIC.  Ill 

worldly  things  that  they  might  serve  God  and 
benefit  the  nation.  In  only  one  do  we  see  high 
worldly  honors  associated  with  devotion  and 
faithfulness  to  God.  At  an  early  age,  Daniel  was 
introduced  to  the  royal  court  of  Babylon  and 
educated  in  the  wisdom  and  learning  of  the  Chal- 
deans. Although  an  exile  from  his  native  land 
and  exposed  to  the  temptations  of  a  gay  and 
heathen  city,  he  did  not  yield  to  the  seductions 
around  him,  nor  did  he  forget  the  God  of  his 
fathers.  True  to  the  religion  of  Israel,  he  firmly 
but  courteously  refused  to  comply  with  the  cus- 
toms of  the  court,  and  yet  in  beauty  and  knowl- 
edge he  surpassed  his  young  associates.  By  the 
wisdom  which  God  gave  him  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  dreams,  he  rose,  like  Joseph  in  Egj^pt,  to 
the  highest  rank  in  Babylon.  Here  he  was  hon- 
ored with  a  series  of  visions  and  revelations 
extending  through  coming  ages  and  embracing 
some  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  world's 
history. 

At  length  the  mission  of  the  prophets  was 
ended,  and  the  Hebrew  people  were  blessed  no 
more  with  their  priceless  instruction,  example, 
and  labors.  But  the  fruits  of  their  work  did 
not  perish  with  their  lives.  Embodied  in  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  their  words  have  been  guarded 
through  the  ages ;  and  the  men  who  spake  from 


112  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  still  instruct 
us.  The  record  of  their  faithfulness  and  their 
sacrifices  is  before  us  as  a  worthy  and  im- 
pressive model ;  to  them  the  apostle  points  us  as 
examples  for  our  study  and  imitation. 

The  more  sure  word  of  prophecy  remains,  as  a 
lamp  shining  in  a  dark  place,  opening  a  period  of 
greater  purity  and  blessedness  than  has  ever  been 
known  on  earth,  when  holiness  shall  be  univer- 
sal and  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  shall  be 
the  kingdoms  of  our  God.  To  that  epoch  the 
prophets  pointed  forward ;  to  that  day  the  provi- 
dences of  God  are  tending.  For  the  coming  of 
that  day  we  should  labor  and  pray. 


EPOCH   VI. 
THE  MESSIANIC. 


THE  MESSIANIC. 


Four  hundred  j^ears  of  silence,  expectation, 
wonder!  Age  succeeded  age;  heaven's  counsels 
seemed  to  be  withdrawn  and  hidden  from  the 
earth.  Earth  heard  no  voice  of  heaven's  inspired 
ambassadors.  With  the  hopeful  announcement 
of  the  mysterious  Malachi,  prophecy  ceased,  and 
time  pressed  on  to  its  fulfillment.  At  length  the 
forerunner,  whose  coming  the  last  of  the  proph- 
ets had  predicted,  appeared.  Consecrated  to  his 
office  from  his  birth,  trained  for  its  trying  duties 
amidst  the  solitudes  and  divine  communion  of 
the  wilderness,  he  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able of  Jehovah's  heralds  to  men.  His  whole 
appearance  and  manner  of  life  attracted  the 
attention  of  men  and  gathered  the  multitudes 
around  him.  He  was  clad  in  raiment  of  camel's 
hair,  a  leathern  girdle  was  around  his  loins,  and 
his  food  was  the  product  of  the  desert,  locusts  and 
wild  honey.  The  pause  of  centuries  was  broken 
by  his  clarion  voice,  announcing,  "The  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand !"     From  every  quarter  of 

115 


116  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

southern  Palestine  crowds  flocked  to  his  wild 
retreat,  to  listen  to  his  bold  and  faithful  appeals, 
and  many  were  baptized  of  him  in  Jordan,  con- 
fessing their  sins.  The  heart  of  the  nation  was 
moved,  and  in  that  day  of  suspense  and  hope 
it  was  not  strange  that  the  people  questioned 
whether  or  not  he  were  the  promised  Christ. 
From  Jerusalem  a  delegation  of  priests  and  Levites 
visited  him  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  his  claims. 
The  Baptist  was  as  humble  as  he  was  sincere,  and 
he  plainly  stated  that  he  was  only  the  harbinger 
of  One  mightier  than  himself,  whose  shoes'  latchet 
he  was  not  worthy  to  unloose. 

There  was  a  strange  baptism  at  the  Jordan. 
Reluctantly  John  administered  the  rite ;  and  at 
the  close  of  it  the  vaulted  heavens  were  opened, 
and  the  Spirit  of  God  descended  gently,  like  a 
dove,  upon  the  baptized,  and  a  clear  voice  spoke 
from  on  high,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom 
I  am  well  pleased."  The  tidings  of  that  extraor- 
dinary baptism  flew  through  the  land,  and  men 
pondered  respecting  the  character  and  claims  of 
the  Messiah. 

The  Messianic  epoch  is  the  great  epoch  in  the 
world's  history.  It  is  the  center  to  which  all  others 
converge.  Patriarchs  and  prophets,  the  saints  of 
the  earlier  day,   looked   forward.     Apostles   and 


THE  MESSIANIC.  117 

martyrs,  the  saints  of  the  later  day,  looked  back- 
ward. For  this  period  all  other  periods  exist:  to 
it  they  are  subordinate.  Around  it,  as  planet 
around  a  sun,  they  all  revolve,  getting  their  im- 
portance from  it  and  bearing  to  it  their  common 
tribute.  The  great  work  of  this  epoch  is  that 
upon  which  the  world  depends  for  its  salvation. 
The  life  and  death  of  the  Redeemer  are  the  confi- 
dence and  joy  of  the  godly  throughout  all  time. 
Back  at  the  dawn  of  human  experience,  the 
promise  of  the  Saviour  shed  some  Hght  into  the 
darkened  bowers  of  paradise.  The  patriarch 
Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  the  day  of  Christ :  and  he 
saw  it,  and  was  glad.  The  reign  of  the  Messiah 
awoke  the  sublimest  strains  of  the  sweet  psalmist 
of  Israel.  The  prophets  foretold  the  coming  and 
work  of  Immanuel.  In  the  Redeemer  who  was 
to  come,  the  pious,  through  the  preparatory  cen- 
turies, hopefully  trusted.  The  sacrifices  smoking 
on  a  thousand  altars,  the  bloody  rites  adminis- 
tered by  consecrated  priests,  were  types  of  the 
great  Sacrifice  once  for  all  off'ered  for  the  sin  of 
the  world. 

Since  his  death,  the  pious  have  trusted  in  the 
Saviour  who  has  come.  Apostles  pointed  to  Cal- 
vary, and  they  taught  that  the  blood  there  shed 
was  all-sufficient.  The  cross  became  the  im- 
pressive symbol  of  the  Christian  faith.     With  the 


118  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

name  of  Christ  upon  their  lips,  though  in  the 
arena  and  amidst  the  flames,  martyrs  have  died 
in  triumph.  With  faith  in  him,  saints  in  all  the 
ages  have  found  peace  in  life,  and  victory  in 
death. 

As  the  Messianic  epoch  was  the  terminating 
point  of  all  that  went  before  it,  so  was  it  the 
starting  point  of  all  that  came  after  it.  Like  the 
Spirit,  the  central  guiding  power  amidst  the  up- 
lifted and  revolving  wheels  and  living  creatures  in 
the  vision  of  Ezekiel,  so  is  the  Messiah,  amidst  the 
revolving  wheels  of  providence  and  the  living  en- 
ergies which  sway  the  nations  and  the  changing 
dispensations  of  the  ages,  the  center  and  the  soul 
of  all.  If  we  cannot  fully  grasp  the  spirit  of  that 
era  and  enter  into  the  life  which  animated  it  and 
comprehend  the  work  that  was  fulfilled  then,  we 
can  perhaps  attain  to  some  approximation  to 
what  we  would  desire. 

The  advent  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  took  place  at 
a  pacific  period  of  the  world's  history. 

"  No  war,  or  battle's  sound, 
Was  heard  the  world  around  : 

The  idle  spear  and  shield  were  high  uphung  : 
The  hooked  chariot  stood 
Unstained  with  hostile  blood, 

The  trumpet  spoke  not  to  the  armed  throng  ; 
And  kings  sat  still,  with  awful  eye. 
As  if  they  surely  knew  their  sov' reign  Lord  was  by." 


THE  MESSIANIC.  119 

The  conquering  legions  of  Rome  had  borne  her 
invincible  eagles  from  land  to  land,  and  from 
Gaul  to  India  the  nations  reposed  beneath  its 
sheltering  sway.  A  kind  of  hush  was  upon  the 
world,  broken  only  by  a  low  tone,  like  that  which 
is  said  to  precede  a  great  convulsion  in  nature, 

"  When  from  the  shores 
And  forest-rustling  mountains  comes  a  voice 
That,  solemn-sounding,  bids  the  world  prepare  !" 

Never  had  there  been  a  time  so  opportune  for 
the  mission  of  the  Christ.  The  fullness  of  the  time 
had  come  for  that  event  which  prophecy  had  an- 
nounced and  for  which  Providence  had  been  for 
ages  perfecting  its  designs.  The  world  was  open 
for  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Along  the  great 
thoroughfares  that  Rome  had  built  to  her  remotest 
provinces,  on  which  her  couriers  flew  and  over 
which  her  legions  could  be  poured,  the  heralds  of 
the  cross  could  safely  journey.  The  arts  and  arms 
of  the  conquerors  had  done  much  toward  banish- 
ing the  ignorance  and  improving  the  manners  of 
barbarian  states.  No  exciting  subject  occupied 
the  attention  and  energies  of  the  nations.  They 
w^ere  in  a  waiting  posture. 

Especially  were  the  Hebrews  looking  and  long- 
ing for  their  Deliverer,  whose  coming  the  patri- 
archs had  foreseen  and  the  prophets  foretold.  Some, 


120  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

like  the  good  old  Simeon  and  the  pious  Anna,  en- 
tertained correct  views  of  the  spirituality  of  his 
mission.  But  the  great  majority  cherished  false 
sentiments  to  which  their  pride  and  selfishness 
prompted.  Their  restless  spirits  fretted  under  the 
foreign  yoke  and  they  hoped  for  rescue  when  their 
Messiah  should  appear.  Misinterpreting  the 
prophesies  of  their  sacred  books,  they  came  to  re- 
gard him  as  a  temporal  prince,  whose  prowess 
should  restore  the  ancient  supremacy  of  the  He- 
brew commonwealth.  Divided  into  sects  clashing 
among  themselves,  crushed  under  the  imperious 
tread  of  their  conquerors,  and  dead  to  the  spirit 
of  their  ancient  faith  and  worship,  the  Jews  were 
in  a  pitiable  state ;  they  were  not  prepared  for 
the  reception  of  a  saviour  such  as  Jesus.  "  He 
came  unto  his  own,  and  they  that  were  his  own 
received  him  not." 

The  circumstances  of  his  advent  were  peculiar. 
There  was  a  mingled  lowliness  and  greatness  which 
characterized  the  Messiah  from  the  first — the  hum- 
bleness of  humanity  with  the  exaltation  of  divin- 
ity. He  was  the  Son  of  God  ;  yet  he  was  born  of 
a  virgin.  An  angel  voice,  in  the  stillness  of  night, 
announced  his  birth  to  shepherds  who  were  watch- 
ing their  flocks,  and  angel  choirs  celebrated  the 
event  in  sublimest  anthems.  Yet  on  that  night 
the  newborn  Christ  was  cradled  in  a  manger.    To 


THE  MESSIANIC.  121 

the  obscure  home  of  his  parents  came  Magi  from 
the  East,  presenting  costly  offerings  and  paying 
reverence  to  him  as  to  an  infant  prince.  Like 
other  children,  he  was  carried  to  the  temple  to  be 
presented  to  the  Lord,  but  there  the  inspired 
Simeon  and  the  prophetess  Anna  welcomed  him 
as  the  Hope  of  Israel.  In  his  coming  there  was 
no  outward  pomp,  no  regal  nor  military  splendor ; 
all  was  humility,  the  hidings  of  divinity.  For  a 
time  the  wonders  that  marked  his  advent  may 
have  impressed  the  people,  but  in  the  retirement 
of  Nazareth  Jesus  was  forgotten ;  the  memory  of 
those  wonders  was  preserved  by  few.  His  pres- 
ence, when  a  lad,  among  the  doctors  of  the  temple, 
where  he  manifested  a  wisdom  far  surpassing  his 
years,  may  have  revived,  to  a  limited  extent,  the 
earlier  impressions ;  but  again  he  passed  away 
into  a  deeper  obscurity  than  before. 

Galled  and  crushed  under  the  Eoman  power, 
with  no  harmony  among  themselves,  and  having 
but  little  that  was  bright  in  the  future,  their  temple 
pillaged  and  its  worship  declining,  the  Hebrew 
people  were  in  a  mournful  condition.  The  proud 
Pharisees  looked  with  scorn  upon  all  others  and 
dwelt  apart  in  their  hypocritical  sanctity.  The 
Sadducees,  self-confiding  and  bent  ©n  ease  and 
pleasure,  denied  the  greatest  truths  of  man's  being 
and  cared  for  little  else  than  their  own  temporal 


122  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

gratification.  The  Essenes,  indulging  in  sickly 
revery  and  aiming  at  a  sort  of  transcendental 
experience,  severed  their  connection  with  society 
and  frittered  away  the  facts  of  religion.  The  mul- 
titude, more  debased  than  their  superiors,  imitated 
only  the  vices  of  those  above  them  and  plunged 
more  deeply  into  sin.  Accordingly,  the  state  of 
the  Jews  at  large  was  mournful  indeed.  Igno- 
rance, profligacy,  wickedness,  abounded,  and  little 
of  their  ancient  character  and  customs  was  left 
save  a  blind  devotion  to  the  externals  of  the 
Mosaic  institutions.  Their  traits  appear  repul- 
sive ;  their  acts  are  those  of  obdurate  and  cruel 
men. 

Among  such  people,  at  this  era,  a  divine  Life 
was  introduced.  The  Word  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  men,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  By 
the  mysterious  union  of  the  divine  and  human 
natures,  Jesus  was  prepared  for  his  redemptive  and 
mediatorial  work. 

It  is  difficult  to  grasp  or  to  describe  the  life  of 
the  Saviour.  It  was  unique  and  excellent :  Godlike, 
and  therefore  beyond  comparison  with  all  others ; 
human,  and  therefore  resembling  the  life  of  all 
men.  The  life  of  Jesus  transcends  all  other  lives : 
from  the  most  perfect  of  men  we  look  with  adoring 
contemplation  to  Christ,  as  from  the  best  human 
works  we  turn  to  the  handiwork  of   the  great 


THE  MESSIANIC.  123 

Creator.  From  every  point  of  view  we  are  im- 
pressed with  the  same  pre-eminence  of  his  life. 
As  a  child,  as  a  friend,  as  a  teacher,  as  an  ex- 
ample, as  Redeemer,  Jesus  stands  alone.  From 
the  morning  of  his  days  until  the  evening,  he  is 
wonderful,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 

Of  his  childhood  we  know  but  little.  Then  he 
was  the  delight  of  the  family,  a  solace  and  a 
wonder  to  his  mother,  who  in  her  heart  pondered 
his  sayings  and  actions.  Of  his  manhood  the 
records  are  sufficient  to  show  that  in  him  every 
grace  and  excellence  met.  He  was  meek  and 
lowly,  with  no  aspirations  for  earthly  distinction ; 
and  to  the  tempter  he  presented  no  vulnerable 
point.  His  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world.  When 
he  was  reviled,  he  reviled  not  again;  when  he 
suffered  he  threatened  not.  He  was  gentle  among 
the  arrogant;  forgiving  and  kind  to  those  who 
wronged  him.  Like  a  lamb  he  was  led  even  to 
the  slaughter.  In  him  we  see  a  condescension 
that  never  can  be  paralleled.  It  is  seen  not  only 
in  his  coming  into  the  world,  but  also  in  the 
manner  in  which  he  came,  and  in  all  his  life 
after  he  came.  He  was  God's  own  Son,  yet  he 
became  the  Son  of  man.  He  was  accustomed  to 
the  dignities  of  heaven,  yet  he  took  a  low  place 
among  the  people  of  the  world.  Turning  away 
from  the  powerful  and  learned  in  their  places  of 


124  BIBLICAL  :^pocns. 

pride,  he  sought  the  society  of  the  humble  and 
needy.  His  parents  were  in  lowly  life :  to  them 
he  became  obedient.  From  those  who  were  en- 
gaged in  the  common  occupations  of  life  he  sum- 
moned twelve  to  be  his  apostles.  To  the  poor  he 
preached  the  gospel.  On  foot,  often  alone,  he 
went  about  doing  good,  sought  more  by  those  who 
looked  to  him  for  benefits  than  by  those  who  de- 
sired to  benefit  him.  Though  the  treasures  of  the 
universe  were  at  his  disposal,  he  was  often  in  want ; 
though  the  Creator  of  all  worlds,  he  had  not  where 
to  lay  his  head.  Though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  our 
sakes  he  became  poor.  Though  he  might  have 
had  holy  society,  he  mingled  with  those  who  had 
no  love  for  his  character,  no  regard  for  his  claims. 
For  others'  welfare  he  sacrificed  ease,  time,  com- 
fort, bodily  rest,  the  things  that  men  are  accus- 
tomed to  prize.     He  pleased  not  himself. 

He  called  his  disciples,  friends.    As  an  example* 
to  them,  he  washed  their  feet.     He  ate  with  pub- 
licans and  sinners.     He  came  to  seek  and  to  save 
the  lost. 

Children  were  his  delight.  His  gentle  nature 
found  gratification  in  their  innocent  manners  and 
loving  disposition ;  he  welcomed  their  presence, 
and  they  rejoiced  in  him.  He  taught  his  disciples 
to  become  as  little  children.  He  was  a  man  of 
sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief.    He  humbled 


THE  MESSIANIC.  125 

himself  not  merely  to  a  lowly  life,  but  he  became 
obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross. 
His  self-denial  was  unequaled.  Instead  of  the 
joy  that  was  set  before  him,  he  consented  to  un- 
dergo the  shame  and  pain  of  his  earthly  life. 

His  compassion  was  godlike.  With  deep  con- 
cern, with  intense  sympathy,  he  beheld  the  miser- 
able condition  of  men.  Over  Jerusalem  he  wept  as 
with  the  grief  of  a  father.  Among  the  sinful  and 
the  suffering  he  walked  with  a  heart  whose  com- 
passion embraced  all  their  woes,  which  went  down 
to  the  lowest  and  vilest  and  sought  the  welfare  of  all. 
His  pity  led  to  the  exercise  of  his  divine  attributes. 
To  him  the  people  were  like  sheep  without  a  shep- 
herd, and  he  longed  to  be  their  Shepherd.  The 
claims  of  the  poor,  the  wants  of  the  widow  and 
fatherless,  the  afflictions  of  the  wretched  in  body 
or  in  mind,  appealed  to  his  heart,  and  he  was 
swift  to  afford  them  sympathy  and  aid. 

It  were  difficult  to  enumerate  all  the  excellences 
of  his  character  as  they  were  illustrated  in  his 
wonderful  life.  He  was  bold,  patient,  discreet. 
In  wisdom  he  surpassed  the  sages  of  the  world. 
A  greater  than  Solomon  was  he. 

His  forgiveness  was  divine.  For  his  worst  ene- 
mies he  prayed  earnestly.  In  purity  and  temper- 
ance, in  love  to  God  and  benevolence  to  men,  he  far 
outranked  all  that  the  world  has  elsewhere  wit- 


126  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

nessed.  He  loved  the  world,  and  the  untiring 
devotion  of  his  whole  life  was  a  testimony  to  the 
depth  and  strength  of  that  love.  No  labor  was 
too  arduous,  no  danger  to  imminent,  no  sacrifice 
too  painful,  no  time  too  precious,  for  securing  the 
salvation  of  sinners.  From  place  to  place  he  jour- 
neyed till  his  way-worn  frame  was  almost  ex- 
hausted. Then,  famishing,  and  resting  on  the 
well's  cold  curb,  he  sought  to  lead  the  sinning 
to  God.  Depriving  himself  of  needful  sleep,  he 
spent  whole  nights  in  prayer  in  the  solitudes  of 
the  mountains. 

His  benevolence  did  not  exhaust  itself  in  a  life 
of  activity,  toil,  and  sacrifice.  It  led  him  to  suf- 
ferings such  as  no  one  else  has  ever  endured,  to  a 
death  whose  strange  and  painful  character  awoke 
even  the  sympathy  of  inanimate  nature.  Such 
was  Jesus.     For  us  he  travailed,  wept,  died. 

These  separate  excellences  of  character  and  life 
were  harmoniously  combined  in  Christ,  while  at 
the  same  time  they  were  unmingled  with  the  frail- 
ties and  imperfections  of  humanity,  thus  form- 
ing a  model,  beautiful,  proportionate,  consistent, 
divine.     It  was  God  with  us. 

The  works  of  Christ  were  more  striking  to  the 
people  of  his  day  than  was  his  life.  The  latter 
was,  naturally,  to  a  great  degree  retired  and 
unknown  by  the  world.     Much  of  his  time  was 


THE  MESSIANIC.  Ill 

spent  with  his  chosen  disciples,  much  was  spent 
in  places  aloof  from  the  busy  and  turbulent 
crowd.  But  the  former  were  public  and  palpable, 
and  fitted  to  produce  a  deep  impression  on  all 
who  witnessed  them.  They  were  the  tokens  of 
divinity.  They  commenced  with  the  ministry  of 
Christ  and  they  continued  to  its  close.  They 
open  to  us  a  succession  of  facts,  not  indeed 
as  stupendous  as  those  which  characterized  the 
Mosaic  economy,  but  more  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  and  the  claims  of  its 
Founder.  They  were  works  of  kindness  and 
benevolence,  fitted  to  promote  human  happiness 
and  to  diminish  human  suffering.  Seldom  for 
himself,  often  for  others,  did  he  employ  his  divine 
attributes  in  miraculous  works.  The  condition  of 
the  blindj'the  deaf,  the  dumb,  touched  the  sympa- 
thetic heart  of  Jesus.  All  the  suffering  excited 
his  commiseration  and  he  delighted  to  help  and 
relieve  them. 

In  his  day  men  suffered  with  a  peculiar  and 
awful  infliction  known  as  demoniacal  possession. 
The  effects  of  this  possession  were  dreadful.  Men 
were  torn  and  lashed  to  fury ;  they  were  deprived 
of  the  use  of  their  physical  and  mental  faculties 
by  the  demon  within  them.  Life  was  made  a 
misery  to  themselves  and  a  terror  to  others. 
Christ  mercifully  released  many  from  the  presence 


128  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

and  terrific  tyranny  of  evil  spirits.  They  recog- 
nized his  authority  and  stood  in  awe  of  him. 
Men  might  doubt  as  to  his  claims,  but  these  cried 
out,  "  We  know  who  thou  art,  thou  Holy  One  of 
God !" 

The  cause  and  effects  and  history  of  this  dread- 
ful malady  and  scourge  are  imperfectly  understood 
and  perhaps  cannot  be  explained.  It  may  be 
that  as  Satan  and  his  minions  knew  of  the  mis- 
sion of  Christ  and  his  advent,  they  were  moved 
to  oppose  him,  to  do  what  they  could  to  check  his 
influence,  to  thwart  his  designs,  and  so  at  about 
the  time  of  his  birth  made  an  irruption  from 
hell,  adopted  a  new  mode  of  assault,  by  this  series 
of  diabolical  movements.  As  Christ  was  to  become 
miraculously  united  to  human  nature,  so  they 
possessed  men  and  tried  to  counteract' his  work. 

The  manner  in  which  Jesus  rebuked  and  de- 
feated them,  probably  put  a  speedy  end  to  their 
new  and  fiendish  plans.  At  Gadara  there  were 
two  men  possessed  with  devils,  who  had  their 
haunts  among  the  tombs.  They  are  described  as 
exceeding  fierce,  night  and  day  wandering  in  the 
mountain  and  amongst  the  sepulchers  of  the  dead, 
attacking  those  who  passed  near  them,  crying 
with  loud  voices,  cutting  their  naked  bodies  with 
sharp  stones,  and,  whenever  bound,  snapping 
asunder  their  chains  and  fetters  and  escaping. 


THE  MESSIANIC.  129 

By  the  word  of  Jesus'  the  evil  spirits  were  expelled, 
and  the  poor  men  sat  at  the  feet  of  their  deliverer, 
clothed  and  in  their  right  mind.  We  are  told  of 
a  youth  who  was  seized  by  an  evil  spirit,  and 
torn  so  that  he  uttered  cries  of  woe  and  foamed 
and  gnashed  his  teeth  and  pined  away,  and  some- 
times fell  into  fire  and  again  into  water.  Jesus, 
at  the  request  of  the  youth's  father,  rebuked  the 
foul  invader,  and  banished  him  from  his  usurped 
dominion.  But  his  departure  was  attended  with 
such  anguish  that  for  a  time  the  child  seemed  to 
be  dead. 

In  multitudes  of  similar  cases,  Christ  illustrated 
his  power  and  benevolence.  He  was  ever  ready 
to  relieve  human  sorrow  and  sufifering,  and  no 
one  who  applied  to  him  was  repulsed  or  sent 
away  unblessed.  His  ear  was  ever  open  to 
the  cry  of  the  desolate-hearted;  to  the  hum- 
blest he  bent  with  manifest  sympathy;  for  the 
sinful  and  wretched  he  was  prompt  to  exercise 
his  divine  attributes.  His  own  wants  were  for- 
gotten in  behalf  of  those  whom  he  came  to  bene- 
fit and  to  save.  He  healed  the  sick ;  he  recalled 
the  dead  to  life :  wherever  he  went  fountains  of 
gladness  and  blessing  gushed  forth.  A  kind  of 
heavenly  atmosphere  surrounded  him,  and  who- 
ever came  within  its  influence  was  healed  and 
sanctified. 


130  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS, 

Touching  instances  of  his  compassionate  works 
are  given  by  the  evangelists.  A  popular  poet  of 
our  own  has  gracefully  rendered  one  of  them  : 

Blind  Bartimeus  at  the  gates 

Of  Jericho  in  darkness  waits  ; 

He  hears  the  crowd  ; — he  hears  a  breath 

Say,  It  is  Christ  of  Nazareth  ! 

And  calls  in  tones  of  agony, 

Itjoov,  hlETjcdv  fie  ! 

The  thronging  multitude  increase  : 
Blind  Bartimeus,  hold  thy  peace  ! 
But  still,  above  the  noisy  crowd, 
The  beggar's  cry  is  shrill  and  loud  ; 
Until  they  say.  He  calleth  thee  ! 
Qapneij  eyeipaij  (piovel  ae  / 

Then  saith  the  Christ,  as  silent  stands 
The  crowd,  What  wilt  thou  at  my  hands? 
And  he  replies.  Oh  give  me  light  I 
Kabbi,  restore  the  blind  man's  sight  1 
And  Jesus  answers,  'Tnaye, 
'H  rciaTiq  aov  gecuke  oe! 

Ye  that  have  eyes,  yet  cannot  see, 
In  darkness  and  in  misery, 
Eecall  those  mighty  voices  three, 

IrjGOV,   EAETjaSv  jUE  f 

QdpGEij  E-yEipai,  vTrajE  ! 

'H  TTIGTIC  GOV  GEGCiKE  G£  / 

Amongst  all  his  works  of  wonder,  none 
more  fully  illustrated  his  great  benevolence  than 


THE  3rESSIANIC.  131 

the  three  instances  which  are  given  of  his  re- 
storing the  dead  to  life.  In  these  three  cases 
there  is  a  remarkable  gradation  as  respects  the 
period  during  which  the  persons  had  been 
dead. 

At  the  south  of  Mount  Tabor  was  the  city  of 
Nain.  In  his  walk  through  Galilee,  the  Saviour 
approached  that  city,  attended  by  his  chosen  dis- 
ciples and  a  concourse  of  people.  He  had  deliv- 
ered his  matchless  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  that 
had  astonished  the  people  by  the  truthfulness  and 
authority  of  its  doctrine,  which  far  surpassed  the 
teachings  of  the  scribes.  On  the  previous  day  he 
had  restored  from  sickness  the  servant  of  a  pious 
Roman  centurion,  whom,  though  at  a  distance  and 
unseen,  he  cured  by  his  word.  Now  the  crowd, 
undoubtedly,  expected  further  wonders.  As  the 
Messiah,  his  disciples,  and  the  reverential  people 
came  near  the  walls  of  Nain,  they  met  a  funeral 
procession  issuing  from  the  gate.  It  was  the 
funeral  of  a  young  man,  the  only  son  of  his 
mother,  who  was  a  widow.  Many  of  the  people 
of  the  city  expressed  their  sympathy  for  the 
-Jiereaved  mother,  accompanying  her  to  the  burial 
of  her  soxi.  As  Jesus  beheld  the  weeping  woman 
in  her  loneliness  and  anguish,  his  sympathy  was 
stirred.  Perhaps  he  thought  of  his  own  mother 
whom     he    tenderly    loved.      Approaching    the 


132  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

mourner,  he  said  in  compassionate  tones,  "  Weep 
not!"  He  touched  the  bier,  and  the  procession 
stopped.  It  was  a  moment  of  suspense  to  the 
friends  and  to  the  multitude.  The  voice  of 
Jesus  broke  the  stillness,  saying,  "  Young  man,  I 
say  unto  thee.  Arise !"  The  pale  form  arose,  the 
tides  of  life  flowed  again  in  their  wonted  chan- 
nels, and  he  began  to  speak.  To  the  amazed  and 
silent  mother  the  Redeemer  delivered  her  lost 
son.  Fear  fell  upon  every  beholder,  and  as  they 
passed  solemnly  away,  one  said,  "  A  great  prophet 
is  arisen  among  us,"  and  another,  "God  hath 
visited  his  people." 

Capernaum  was  a  chief  seat  of  the  Saviour's 
teachings  and  miracles.  Once,  a  ruler  of  the 
synagogue  there  came  and  fell  before  him,  be- 
seeching him  to  come  and  heal  his  daughter,  a 
child  of  twelve  years,  who  was  at  the  point  of  death. 
Jesus  at  once  went  with  the  father,  who  was  anx- 
ious lest  his  daughter  should  die  before  they  could 
reach  the  house.  On  the  road  word  was  brought 
to  the  ruler  that  the  child  was  dead.  Jesus  com- 
forted him  with  the  promise  that  she  should  yet 
live.  Arriving  at  the  house,  Jesus,  with  only 
the  parents  and  three  of  his  favored  disciples, 
entered  the  chamber  where  the  dead  lay.  Quickly, 
without  ostentation,  he  took  the  hand  of  the 
maiden,   simply    saying,   "Maiden,   arise."     Her 


THE  MESSIANIC.  133 

spirit  returned  and  she  rose  up  immediately,  to 
the  amazement  of  her  parents. 

In  the  little  village  of  Bethany,  near  Jerusalem, 
lived  a  family  to  whom  Jesus  was  tenderly  at- 
tached, Martha,  Mary  and  their  brother  Lazarus. 
The  brother  was  taken  sick,  and  the  sisters  sent 
to  Christ  the  affectionate  message,  "  Lord,  behold, 
he  whom  thou  lovest  is  sick."  Before  the  tidings 
reached  the  Master,  Lazarus  had  died ;  and  when 
Jesus  came  to  the  house  it  was  to  hear  from  the  be- 
reaved sisters  the  lament,  "Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been 
here  our  brother  had  not  died."  Jesus  wept.  He 
loved  Martha  and  her  sister  and  Lazarus.  Their  sor- 
row was  his  sorrow.  With  them,  Martha  calm  and 
resigned,  Mary  bowed  in  excess  of  grief,  and  with 
his  disciples,  Jesus  came  to  the  grave.  It  was  a 
cave,  and  a  stone  lay  against  it.  Jesus  directed 
them  to  remove  the  stone,  which  they  did.  He 
then  led  the  little  company  in  prayer.  The  prayer 
was  ended,  and  for  a  moment  all  was  still  by  the 
silent  grave.  Then  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice, 
"  Lazarus,  come  forth !"  He  that  was  dead  came 
forth,  bound  hand  and  foot  with  grave-clothes: 
and  his  face  was  bound  about  with  a  napkin. 

The  miraculous  works  of  Jesus  were  frequent 
and  impressive ;  yet  they  had  but  little  effect  upon 
the  mass  of  the  people.  Many,  indeed,  believed 
on  him,  but  the  great  majority  felt  indifferent  to 


134  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

his  claim  while  they  were  reproved  by  his  life. 
Those  who  had  authority  and  influence,  as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  became  his  enemies  and  even  plotted 
for  his  death. 

The  teachings  of  Jesus  were  in  harmony  with 
his  works  and  his  life.  They  were  of  a  lofty  char- 
acter and  fell  on  the  ears  of  men  as  with  the 
voice  of  divinity.  There  was  a  tone  terrible  and 
withering  in  his  rebukes.  Pharisees  and  scribes, 
sinners  of  every  grade,  cowered  in  his  majestic 
presence  when  he  denounced  woes  upon  them  for 
their  crimes.  When  he  spoke  before  assemblies 
of  the  people,  they  listened  as  to  no  common 
teacher.  We  read,  "  The  multitudes  were  aston- 
ished at  his  teaching :  for  he  taught  them  as  one 
having  authority,  and  not  as  their  scribes."  The 
mingled  simplicity  and  wisdom  of  his  words  fell 
upon  them  like  tones  from  heaven,  and  charmed 
while  they  instructed  and  reproved.  There  was  in 
his  simplest  speech  a  power  which  they  could 
not  withstand.  On  one  occasion  his  enemies  sent 
officers  to  take  him;  so  awed  were  they  by  his 
language  and  bearing  that  they  returned  without 
him,  and  gave  as  their  excuse  to  those  who  had  sent 
them,  "  Never  man  so  spake."  On  another  occa- 
sion an  armed  band,  with  murderous  intent,  in- 
vaded his  retirement  to  capture  him.  Jesus  came 
forth  to  them  and  asked  whom  they  sought,  and 


THE  MESSIANIC.  135 

when  they  told  him,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  he  said, 
"  I  am  he : "  whereupon  those  rude  men  went 
backward  and  fell  to  the  ground. 

He  went  down  to  the  place  where  he  had  spent 
his  childhood  and  preached  in  their  synagogue  on 
the  Sabbath.  The  people  who  heard  him  were 
astonished  and  wondered  at  the  words  of  grace 
which  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth.  At  the  great 
assemblies  on  the  occasions  of  the  annual  feasts  of 
the  nation  he  spoke  as  with  the  authority  of  God. 
He  presented  the  claims  of  his  kingdom  as  su- 
preme, and  demanded  the  loyalty  of  the  human 
heart  for  himself.  He  set  forth  a  spiritual  dis- 
pensation which,  in  the  passing  away  of  the  old 
dispensation,  should  run  parallel  with  the  life  of 
the  race  and  should  have  the  allegiance  of  the 
world.  He  lifted  men's  minds  to  a  higher  stand- 
point than  they  had  before  attained,  and  gave  to 
the  people  a  broader  range  of  vision  than  the  old 
economy  had  contemplated.  He  exalted  the  divine 
law  and  gave  its  sanctions  a  new  impressiveness 
and  a  stronger  grasp  on  the  life  of  man.  At  the 
same  time  he  revealed  the  way  of  reconciliation 
to  which  the  earliest  prophecies  had  pointed  and 
which  had  been  typified  in  the  sacrifices  of  the 
Levitical  code. 

He  taught  of  God,  and  set  up  in  his  Church,  as 
one  of    its    perpetual   sacraments,  an   enduring 


136  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

monument  to  the  mysterious  Trinity  of  the  God- 
head.    Of  the  final  judgment  and  the  future  state 
he  spoke  truth  that  was  of  overshadowing  and 
supreme  importance  and  that  was  fitted  to  move 
all  the  sensibility  of  the  soul.    With  all  that  there 
was  of  dignity,  force,  and  awfulness  in  his  teach- 
ing, there  was  also  a  tenderness  and  love  which 
marked  him  as  a  sympathizing  Saviour.     He  had 
words  of  solace  for  the  smitten  hearts  of  mourners, 
words  of  pity  for  the  miserable  and   convicted 
sinners,  words  of  kindly  warning  for  the  reckless 
wanderers  from  God.     To  the  wretched  and  de- 
spairing he  said, "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor 
and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 
Over  those  about  to  perish,  he  wept  with  bitter 
lamentation.     To  the  saddened  disciples  whom  he 
was  soon  to  leave,  he  spoke  words  of  affection 
and  cheer.    His  instructions  were  adapted  to  men 
as  they  are,  and  to  their  peculiar  needs.     Christ 
was  a  practical  teacher.     He  taught  men  how  to 
live,  how  to  be  ready  for  the  future  life.     He  re- 
quired holiness  of  men — a  holiness  which,  being 
supreme  in  the  soul,  should  control  the  conduct 
and  lead  to  resemblance  to  God.     The  ancient 
economy  was  "  the  bond  written  in  ordinances," 
and  although  God  designed  that  it  should  foster  a 
spiritual  religion,  yet  the  Jews  had  made  it  void 
by  their  traditions.     Christ  reasserted  the  claims 


THE  MESSIANIC.  137 

of  the  moral  law,  enthroned  it  in  supreme  au- 
thority, and  swept  away  the  cumbersome  cere- 
monies of  an  earlier  dispensation.  He  taught 
that  God  takes  cognizance  of  the  hidden  motives 
and  designs,  and  judges  not  so  much  from  the 
external  manifestation  as  from  the  internal  prin- 
ciple. And  this  is  a  cardinal,  distinctive  feature 
of  the  Master's  instruction. 

Notwithstanding  the  godlike  life,  the  miracu- 
lous works,  and  the  heavenly  instructions  of  Jesus, 
he  was  not  acknowledged  and  received  by  the 
world.  In  accordance  with  ancient  prophecy,  he 
was  despised  and  rejected  of  men.  All  along  in  his 
divine  ministry  there  had  been  those  who  desired 
and  plotted  his  destruction.  His  goodness  was 
his  greatest  crime.  They  who  felt  rebuked  by  his 
holy  life  and  teachings,  feared  his  influence  and 
hated  his  power.  In  his  triumph  they  foresaw 
their  own  downfall.  Rulers,  scribes,  priests,  saw 
that  their  authority  was  waning  before  the  power 
of  his  influence  and  that  the  people  were  yielding 
to  his  claim.  They  said,  "  The  world  is  gone  after 
him."  Here  and  there,  also,  one  and  another 
among  the  learned  and  influential  were  con- 
vinced that  he  was  the  true  and  promised  Messiah. 
His  enemies  took  counsel  how  they  might  take 
Jesus  and  kill  him. 

For  the  last  time  the  toil-worn  Teacher  came 


138  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

up  from  his  wanderings  to  the  sacred  Hebrew 
capital.  He  came  in  triumph.  From  Olivet 
multitudes  thronged  his  pathway  and  escorted 
him  with  regal  honors.  They  spread  their  gar- 
ments and  branches  of  trees  in  his  path.  With 
loud  exultations  they  cried,  "  Hosanna !  Blessed  is 
he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord !"  From 
the  city  other  multitudes  came  out  to  meet  him 
and  give  him  welcome.  Not  since  the  days  of 
Israel's  kings  had  such  a  triumph  been  witnessed 
in  the  city  of  David.  The  whole  city  was  moved. 
He  came  to  the  temple  and  there  healed  the  blind 
and  tlie  lame,  while  the  children  hailed  him  with 
their  hosannas.  During  that  passover  week  he 
continued  his  instructions  and  warnings  to  the 
people.  More  insidiously  than  ever  his  enemies 
conspired  for  his  death.  They  found  a  traitor  in 
one  of  his  own  apostles.  The  plot  thickened 
around  the  person  of  Christ. 

Unmoved  by  all  that  was  transpiring,  Jesus, 
with  his  disciples,  partook  of  the  solemn  feast 
of  the  nation.  The  city  was  crowded  with  those 
who  had  come  from  all  parts  of  Palestine  and 
from  foreign  marts  of  trade,  to  participate  in 
the  gorgeous  and  scenic  ceremonies  of  that  festival 
week.  To  none  was  it  more  full  of  thrilling  in- 
terest than  to  the  little  group,  Jesus  and  his  apos- 
tles, in  an  upper  chamber  of  the  capital.     Years 


THE  MESSIANIC.  139 

before,  after  the  manner  of  the  old  philosophers, 
he  had  called  them  from  their  humble  occupations 
to  accompany  him  in  his  labors  and  to  learn  from 
him  of  the  realities  of  his  kingdom.  The  philos- 
ophy which  he  taught  them  was  superior  to  any 
which  the  schools  had  taught.  Although  of 
widely  dissimilar  traits,  their  personality  had  been 
greatly  modified  by  their  intimate  intercourse 
with  One  so  exalted  and  heavenly.  The  impetu- 
ous Peter  and  the  loving  John  were  there,  the  tw^o 
most  interesting  members  of  the  group.  There 
was  the  sincere  and  guileless  Bartholomew,  and 
James,  the  first  apostolic  martyr.  Around  that 
table  w^re  men  w^ho  were  to  leave  strong  impres- 
sions on  the  thought  of  the  world  and  were  to 
introduce  the  grandest  revolution  in  human  his- 
tory, written  not  in  blood  and  sorrow,  on  ensan- 
guined plains,  with  slaughtered  thousands,  but 
in  penitences  and  prayers  and  lives  of  holiness 
and  blessed  service  in  the  eternal  heavens. 

As  they  partook  of  the  paschal  supper,  Jesus 
instituted  a  new  sacrament,  to  be  observed  when 
the  Hebrew  passover  should  be  forgotten,  in 
perpetual  memorial  of  his  atoning  w^ork  for  the 
world,  the  new  Supper  of  the  Lord,  commemorat- 
ing by  simple  symbols  his  body  which  wasjoroken 
and  his  blood  which  was  shed  for  the  sins  of 
mankind.    The  minds  of  the  apostles  w^ere  unpre- 


140  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

pared  for  such  an  occasion,  and  it  was  with 
bewildering  doubt  and  fear  that  they  passed 
through  the  solemnities  of  that  remarkable  even- 
ing. Mournful  to  them  must  have  been  the  voice 
of  their  Master,  as  with  them  he  chanted,  "  The 
cords  of  death  compassed  me:  I  found  trouble 
and  sorrow,"  or  as  in  exulting  strains  they  sang, 
"  The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected  is  become 
the  head  of  the  corner."  Most  affecting  must 
have  been  those  petitions  which  he  offered  in  the 
fullness  of  his  affection  and  solicitude  for  them. 
It  was  a  night  long  to  be  remembered  by  the 
apostles  of  our  Lord. 

The  hush  of  midnight  was  on  the  homes  of 
Jerusalem  when  Jesus  and  his  disciples  passed 
along  its  deserted  streets,  across  tlie  flowing  Ke- 
dron  to  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  wdiere  he 
was  accustomed  to  go  for  retirement  and  prayer. 
For  the  last  time  he  entered  this  lonely  retreat 
where  he  had  often  found  strength  for  duty  and 
trial  in  communion  with  his  Father.  A  deep 
shadow  passed  over  the  soul  of  Jesus  at  that 
midnight  hour.  It  was  midnight  in  his  heart. 
Sorrow  poured,  like  surging  waves,  through  his 
soul.  He  said,  "  My  soul  is  exceeding  sorrowful, 
even  unto  death."  He  earnestly  asked  his  three 
beloved  disciples  to  watch  with  him.  Alone  he 
passed  into  the  deeper  shadows  of  the  garden,  and 


THE  MESSIANIC.  141 

prayed  that,  if  it  were  possible,  he  might  be 
spared  the  sufferings  that  were  appointed  for  him. 
"  Nevertheless,"  he  said,  "  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou 
wilt."  An  angel  came  from  heaven  to  strengthen 
him  in  that  supreme  trial.  But  his  agony  in- 
creased, and  his  only  help  was  in  prayer.  Again 
and  again  he  sought  support  where  only  the 
wounded  and  suffering  can  ever  find  the  help 
which  they  must  have.  God  gave  him  strength 
for  the  approaching  ordeal,  and  calmly  he  an- 
nounced that  the  time  for  his  betrayal  had  come. 

Hardly  had  he  spoken  when  the  glare  of  ap- 
proaching torches  flickered  through  the  groves  of 
olive  trees  and  the  tread  of  armed  men  rang 
along  the  paths  leading  to  Gethsemane.  Judas, 
the  traitor,  was  at  their  head,  leading  them  to  the 
hallowed  spot  consecrated  by  the  agony  and  prayer 
of  the  Son  of  God.  Those  rude  men  laid  hands  on 
Jesus  and  hurried  him  to  the  house  of  the  high- 
priest.  Dismayed  and  perplexed,  the  apostles  de- 
serted him  and  fled,  leaving  him  alone  with  his 
enemies. 

The  story  of  his  trial  is  brief  and  saddening. 
He  was  brought  before  the  Sanhedrin,  whose 
members  hated  him  and  had  long  desired  his 
death.  False  witnesses  testified  against  him.  The 
high-priest  perverted  his  language  to  blasphemy. 
With  one  voice,  they  all  condemned  him  to  death. 


142  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

Perished  was  the  ancient  Hebrew  j ustice !  Perished 
was  the  grandeur  of  the  old  Mosaic  law,  which  for 
thousands  of  years  had  been  the  bulwark  of  hu- 
man freedom  and  of  personal  rights!  Perished 
was  the  sacred  character  of  the  chief  priest  of  the 
venerated  Hebrew  religion !  By  the  highest  Jew- 
ish tribunal,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Messiah  of  that 
favored  nation,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  was  pro- 
nounced worthy  of  death  !  Darkest  picture,  sad- 
dest scene  in  the  jurisprudence  of  the  world! 

But  they  could  not  enforce  their  condemnation. 
Eoman  law  was  supreme  in  the  Hebrew  metrop- 
olis, and  that  stern  and  potent  law  guarded  the 
life  of  every  individual  wherever  the  eagles  of 
the  empire  testified  to  its  sway.  Behold  the 
priests  and  elders  of  the  Jews,  and  the  scribes, 
hurrying  in  the  early  morning  to  the  palace 
of  Herod,  where  Pilate,  the  Roman  procurator, 
was  then  residing!  Witness  their  eagerness  to 
prejudice  and  overawe  the  Roman  judge;  their 
thirst  for  the  blood  of  Jesus!  At  first  they 
touched  the  jealous  nature  of  Pilate,  then  they 
appealed  to  his  fears,  and  at  last,  when  the  weak 
magistrate  had  yielded  step  by  step  before  them, 
when  he  had  scourged  the  innocent  Redeemer 
and  had  brought  him  forth,  wounded  and  bleed- 
ing, to  their  presence,  as  if  the  sight  of  blood  only 
maddened  them  the  more,  they  cried  out,  with 


THE  MESSIANIC.  143 

tumultuous  voices,  "  Crucify  him !  Crucify  him  !" 
Their  ferocious  mandate  was  obeyed,  and  Roman 
justice  fell  prostrate  before  Jewish  malice  and 
frenzy. 

After  this  followed  a  succession  of  scenes  of 
the  most  painful  nature.  Jesus  was  given  up  to 
the  rudeness  and  insolence  of  the  rough  soldiery. 
They  clothed  him  in  purple  and  crowned  him 
with  thorns  and  gave  him  a  reed  for  a  scepter, 
and  with  mock  reverence  kneeled  before  him  as 
before  an  earthly  king.  Insult  followed  indignity. 
They  spit  upon  him  and  smote  him  and  knelt  at 
his  feet  in  derisive  worship. 

Amidst  these  abhorrent  scenes  a  terrible  tragedy 
was  enacted.  The  traitor  Judas,  stung  with  re- 
morse, hurled  at  the  feet  of  those  who  had  hired 
him  the  price  of  blood,  and  rushed  from  the  tem- 
ple and  hanged  himself.  For  him  Mercy  could 
not  plead,  and  Justice  could  not  tarry.  He  went 
to  his  own  place,  a  fearful  witness  to  the  fact  of 
human  depravity  and  a  dreadful  instance  of  the 
certainty  of  divine  retribution. 

It  was  nearly  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
when  a  strange  procession  passed  forth  from  Jeru- 
salem on  the  way  to  Calvary.  First  went  the 
mail-clad  soldiery  of  Rome;  then  the  meek  Re- 
deemer, almost  exhausted  by  the  endurance  of 
the   morning   and   the   agony   of  the   preceding 


144  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

night ;  next,  a  black  man  bearing  the  cross,  and 
then  a  great  company  of  the  friends  of  Jesus,  be- 
wailing his  fate  with  loud  lamentations.  On  Gol- 
gotha was  the  Crucifixion. 

Christ  died  for  man.  The  burden  of  a  world's 
transgression  was  laid  upon  him.  In  that  death 
he  finished  the  work  that  was  given  him  to  do. 

Nature  expressed  her  sympathy  for  her  suf- 
fering Creator.  For  three  long  hours  darkness 
was  spread  like  a  pall  over  all  the  land.  As  by 
unseen  hands  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  torn  in 
twain.  An  earthquake  shook  the  city  and  rent 
the  ancient  hills.  Graves  were  opened  and  the 
sheeted  dead  walked  forth,  went  into  the  holy  city, 
startling  those  to  whom  they  appeared.  Fear  fell 
upon  the  centurion  and  his  soldiers,  and  they  ex- 
claimed, "  Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God !" 

On  the  third  day  of  his  sepulture,  an  angel 
stood  at  the  tomb,  and  at  his  presence  the  earth 
quaked  and  the  keepers  became  as  dead  men. 
Victorious  over  death,  Christ  arose ! 

For  a  little  season  the  Redeemer  appeared  to 
his  wondering  disciples  and  blessed  them  with 
his  presence,  his  counsels,  and  prayers.  On  a 
mountain  of  Galilee,  he  communed  with  above 
five  hundred  of  his  assembled  disciples.  Finally 
from  Jerusalem  he  led  his  apostles  out  near  to 
Bethany,  where  he  blessed  them.     Then  he  was 


THE  MESSIANIC.  145 

parted  from  them,  and,  environed  in  a  cloud,  he 
rose  to  heaven,  where  he  ever  liveth  to  make  in- 
tercession for  his  friends. 

So  ends  the  wondrous  Messianic  epoch,  the  cen- 
tral epoch  of  the  world's  history.  We  pass  back 
over  the  life  of  the  adorable  Saviour,  recalling 
his  lowly  parentage,  his  eminent  and  holy  char- 
acter, his  benevolent  and  miraculous  works;  we 
listen  to  his  godlike  teachings  and  learn  of  his 
superhuman  sufferings,  and  we  know  that  all  this 
was  for  us.  For  us  Christ  is  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
the  Life.  He  is  our  Brother,  our  Friend,  our 
Teacher,  our  Redeemer,  our  Lord. 

% 


EPOCH  VII. 


THE  APOSTOLIC. 


THE  APOSTOLIC. 


Galilee  was  the  northern  of  the  three  great 
divisions  of  Palestine;  Samaria  was  the  south- 
ern ;  Judea  lay  between  them.  Galilee  was  itself 
divided  into  two  portions,  upper  and  lower.  The 
upper  portion,  at  the  time  of  Christ,  was  inhab- 
ited by  various  clans,  fragments  of  surrounding 
nations,  who  had  found  secure  retreats  among  the 
fastnesses  of  its  protecting  mountains.  The  lower 
portion  was  the  residence  of  a  brave,  high-spirited, 
industrious,  and  independent  people,  who  spurned 
the  Roman  yoke  and  were  ever  ready  for  sedition. 
Here  Jesus  lived,  here  he  taught  and  wrought  his 
miracles,  here  he  selected  his  apostles,  and  here 
he  showed  himself  to  his  disciples  after  his  resur- 
rection. 

Some  of  the  towns  of  Galilee  were  Bethsaida, 
Cana,  Capernaum,  Chorazin,  Nain,  Nazareth,  Ti- 
berias— names  which  recall  interesting  scenes  in 
the  life  and  history  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles. 

The  character  and  occupations  of  the  people 
were  more  favorable  for  the  work  of  Jesus  than 

149 


150  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

were  those  of  the  people  of  Judea.  The  influence 
of  the  metropoUs,  with  its  pride  and  bigotry,  its 
clashing  sects  and  degenerate  morals,  had  not 
extended  into  Galilee.  And  although  there  were 
rudeness  and  ignorance  which,  at  first,  might  be 
thought  to  detract  from  the  capability  of  the  Gali- 
lean people,  yet  these  were  associated  with  other 
traits,  which,  sanctified  and  guided,  would  pro- 
duce the  qualifications  and  character  that  Jesus 
sought  in  the  men,  who,  at  that  epoch,  in  the 
face  of  opposition  and  at  the  risk  of  life,  were  to 
propagate  the  new  religion  of  which  he  was  the 
Founder. 

Jesus  and  his  apostles  were  Galileans.  In 
that  obscure  region,  from  humble  beginnings, 
Christianity  entered  upon  its  career  of  conquest. 
At  first,  as  we  have  seen,  a  single  Person  ap- 
peared, ushered  before  men  by  divine  tokens 
and  revealing  attributes  of  deity.  Slowly  his 
kingdom  made  its  way  against  the  prejudice 
and  hostility  of  Judaism  ;  then,  emerging  from 
its  Galilean  home,  it  took  position  within  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  temple,  and  demanded  the 
confidence  and  loyalty  of  the  ancient  people  of 
God ;  and  then  in  its  resistless  progress  it  went 
onward  over  the  trembling  shrines  and  temples 
of  paganism,  until  Christianity  wore  upon  its 
own  brow  the  diadem  of  the  Caesars  and  swayed 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  151 

its  scepter  over  the  known  world.  Although 
from  age  to  age  its  successes  and  reverses  have 
alternated,  yet  now  it  is  widely  extending  its 
triumphs  and  faithfully  working  for  universal 
dominion. 

To  the  teachings  and  example  of  the  apostles 
may  be  traced  the  zeal  and  self-denial  and  world- 
wide benevolence  which,  in  every  period  following 
theirs,  have  characterized  their  successors.  As  we 
pass  back  to  the  review  of  their  lives  and  times 
we  find  the  noblest  exemplifications  of  the  faith 
and  heroism  which  the  gospel  is  fitted  to  nur- 
ture ;  we  see  the  spirit  of  Christianity  developed  in 
lives  of  supreme  devotion,  pausing  at  no  personal 
sacrifice  or  danger,  and  leading  on  through  per- 
secution to  the  martyr's  death  and  the  martyr's 
crown ;  nor  can  we  fail  to  find  the  wonderful  re- 
sults which  followed  such  faith  and  devotion. 

Soon  after  Jesus  had  entered  on  his  public 
ministry,  he  sought  for  a  select  number  of  disci- 
ples, to  be  with  him  as  personal  friends  and  com- 
panions, to  whom  he  could  impart  the  great  things 
of  his  kingdom  and  who  would  remain  as  wit- 
nesses of  his  godlike  life  and  instructions  after  he 
should  have  gone  away.  He  selected  men  whom 
he  deemed  to  be  fitted  for  the  station  and  work  of 
the  apostleship.  He  did  not  seek  them  among  the 
wealthy  and  influential  families  of  Judea,  whose 


152  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

position  and  power  might  have  been  considered 
desirable  as  an  aid  to  his  cause.  He  did  not 
go  to  the  Hebrew  schools  and  choose  those  who 
had  been  thoroughly  educated  in  the  law  and 
theology  of  the  nation,  and  whose  learning  and 
eloquence  might  have  been  thought  most  impor- 
tant for  gaining  adherents  to  the  gospel.  He  went 
to  the  uneducated,  courageous,  and  independent 
Galileans ;  he  chose  men  who  were  unknown  to 
the  world,  who  were  free  from  the  prejudices  and 
pride  which  prevailed  through  all  ranks  of  the 
learned  and  powerful ;  men  who  were  bound  to  no 
sect,  who  had  nothing  of  station  or  reputation  to 
lose  by  becoming  the  followers  of  the  Nazarene, 
and  who  under  the  tuition  of  Jesus  would  become 
zealous  and  faithful  apostles. 

He  called  four  fishermen  from  the  Sea  of  Gal- 
ilee, telling  them  that  he  would  make  them 
"fishers  of  men."  He  called  a  collector  of  cus- 
toms from  his  business,  and  others  from  common 
pursuits  of  life,  simply  saying  to  them,  "  Follow 
me."  They  left  all  and  followed  him.  With 
a  self-denial,  devotion,  and  affection  which  are 
marvelous,  they  attached  themselves  to  the  mys- 
terious Teacher  whose  instruction  and  works  were 
then  attracting  the  attention  of  men  in  every 
department  and  business  of  life.  Throughout 
his  ministry  they  were  his  constant  companions, 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  153 

his  attentive  disciples.  Although  at  first  they 
could  not  appreciate  his  instructions,  and  al- 
though it  was  hard  for  them  to  understand  the 
spirituality  of  his  kingdom,  yet  Jesus  knew  that 
through  his  continued  teachings  and  training 
they  w^ould  eventually  be  enlightened  to  grasp 
what  he  should  reveal  to  them.  They  held  the 
Jewish  belief  respecting  the  Messiah,  which  was 
that  he  would  come  as  a  temporal  prince  to  free 
the  nation  from  the  yoke  of  its  oppressors  and 
to  restore  its  ancient  power  and  glory.  Accord- 
ingly they  were  constantly  looking  forward  to  the 
time  w^hen  their  Master  should  throw  off  his  dis- 
guise, summon  the  enthusiastic  people  to  his  ban- 
ner, and  lead  them  forth  to  victory.  No  doubt 
they  were  ready  for  the  conflict  which  they  an- 
ticipated. The  miraculous  power  of  Jesus  gave 
them  confidence  in  him  as  a  leader.  The  commis- 
sariat was  dependent  only  on  his  word.  They 
saw  five  thousand  men  abundantly  fed  with  five 
loaves  and  two  fishes,  and  they  knew  of  no  limit 
to  his  ability.  They  saw  him  walking  upon  the 
sea  as  upon  dry  land.  They  saw  him  restoring  the 
dead  to  life,  giving  soundness  and  strength  to  the 
lame,  the  sick,  and  to  those  afflicted  with  any 
malady.  What  could  not  such  a  chieftain  ac- 
complish? He  could  feed  his  armies  in  a 
desert;   he  could  bring  back  to  life   those  who 


154  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

should  fall  in  battle,  and  restore  the  wounded  by 
his  word.  No  defeat,  no  reverses,  would  be  felt 
by  one  who  possessed  such  recuperative  forces. 

It  was  hard  for  the  apostles  to  learn  that  the 
kingdom  of  their  Lord  was  a  spiritual  kingdom. 
They  discussed  the  matter  of  their  relative  rank 
when  he  should  sit  upon  his  throne.  Even  after 
his  resurrection,  after  all  that  they  had  heard 
from  Jesus  before  his  betrayal,  and  had  seen  in  the 
experiences  of  his  death,  they  asked  him,  "  Lord, 
dost  thou  at  this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom 
to  Israel  ?"  So  difficult  was  it  for  them  to  renounce 
their  long- cherished  views.  Their  training,  there- 
fore, was  directed  to  that  point.  Christ  inculcated 
upon  them  those  virtues  which  would  distinguish 
them  from  the  world — humility,  self-denial,  forgive- 
ness of  injuries,  devotion  to  God.  By  his  own  im- 
pressive example  he  taught  them  what  their  lives 
should  be.  They  saw  in  him  a  perfect  model. 
While  he  had  no  conformity  to  the  world,  he  had 
the  deepest  sympathy  and  benevolence  for  the 
world.  He  was  untiring  in  labor,  constant  in 
prayer,  watchful  for  opportunity  to  say  and  to 
do  the  best  thing  for  others.  To  his  apostles  he 
freely  spoke.  He  made  known  to  them,  so  far 
as  they  could  bear  it,  the  truth  respecting  him- 
self, respecting  their  mission,  respecting  God  and 
his  government.     So  they  were  under  a  discipline 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  155 

eminently  fitted  to  })repare  them  for  their  respon- 
sible and  laborious  life.  From  him  they  heard 
instruction  which  was  adapted  to  their  condition. 
In  him  they  saw  the  exemplification  of  what 
their  own  lives  should  be. 

The  apostolic  office  was  peculiar.  Strictly  speak- 
ing the  apostles  had  no  successors.  They  were 
succeeded  by  those  who  entered  into  their  labors, 
who  partook  of  their  spirit,  who  were  instructed 
and  ordained  by  them  for  the  work  of  preaching 
the  gospel.  Those  who  have  most  of  their  faith 
and  devotion  in  this  work  and  in  love  to  Christ, 
are  most  like  the  apostles.  But  as  apostles  they 
stood  alone.  The  qualifications  for  the  office  did 
not  exist  after  their  day.  It  was  necessary  that 
they  should  have  seen  the  Lord,  and  should  have 
personally  witnessed  what  they  declared  to  men. 
The  apostles  recognized  this  necessity  in  their 
choice  of  Matthias.  Paul  also  bases  the  proof 
of  his  apostleship  on  this  ground.  He  says, 
"Am  I  not  an  apostle?  have  I  not  seen  Jesus 
our  Lord?"  plainly  implying  that  the  seeing 
of  Christ  was  essential  to  his  being  an  apostle. 
Elsewhere  he  declares,  "  Last  of  all,  as  to  a  child 
untimely  born,  he  appeared  to  me  also."  It  was 
necessary  that  an  apostle  should  be  immediately 
called  and  chosen  to  the  apostolic  office  by  Christ 
himself. 


156  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

Infallible  inspiration  was  also  a  necessary  qualifi- 
cation for  the  office.  Without  this  they  could  not 
have  discharged  their  mission.  It  belonged  to 
them  not  only  to  unfold  the  meaning  of  the 
ancient  sacred  writings  of  the  Hebrews,  but  also 
to  embody  in  their  own  new  Scriptures  the  prin- 
ciples and  constitution  of  the  Christian  common- 
wealth. They  were  to  give  the  world  a  new  rev- 
elation, the  authoritative  and  permanent  guide 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  the  end  of  time. 
They  needed  therefore  what  was  promised  to 
them  and  what  was  bestowed  upon  them, — the 
special  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  their 
message  became  not  the  word  of  man,  but  the 
word  of  God. 

3Iimculous  power  also  belonged  to  the  apostle- 
ship.  For  the  establishment  of  Christianity  it 
was  necessary  that  miracles  should  be  wrought. 
They  were  God's  seals  to  its  truth.  Such  won- 
derful works  were  therefore  witnessed.  The  apos- 
tles spake  in  foreign  tongues,  healed  the  sick, 
raised  the  dead,  and  in  other  ways  gave  incon- 
testable evidence  that  they  wrought  by  the  power 
of  God.  Speaking  of  his  own  ministry  at  Corinth, 
St.  Paul  writes,  "Truly  the  signs  of  an  apostle 
were  wrought  among  you  in  all  patience,  by 
signs  and  wonders  and  mighty  works." 

It  is  evident  that  these  qualifications  for  the 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  157 

apostolic  office    did    not  exist    after  their  day. 
Under    Christ,    they  were   the   founders   of   the 
churches.     To  fulfill  their  important  duties  they 
were  supernaturally  endowed.     With  them  passed 
away  the  peculiar  prerogatives  of  the  apostleship. 
The  mission  of  the  apostles,  the  duties  belonging 
to  their  office,  were  most  important.      They  re- 
ceived their  commission  from  the  Saviour  him- 
self,  with    the    assurance   that  they  should   do 
greater  works  than  they  had  seen  him  do.     Be- 
ginning at  Jerusalem,  they  were  to  proclaim  him 
to  all  nations  as  the  true  Messiah,  the  Saviour  of 
a  lost  world.     This  was  no  easy  task.    On  the  one 
hand  they  were  to  encounter  the  inveterate  prej- 
udice and  hostility  of  the  Jews;    on  the  other 
hand,  the  pride  and  paganism  of  the  Gentiles. 
The  Hebrew  mind  was  in  a  state  where  it  could 
not  readily  be  reached.     With  the  decline  of  that 
people's  greatness,  there  was  a  decline  of  its  piety. 
The  majesty  of  the  theocracy,  whose   imposing 
ceremonial   and  divine    intervention    had   awed 
and  restrained  the  popular  mind,  had  long  before 
passed  away.   The  restraints  of  the  monarchy  were 
also  withdrawn  with  its  decline;  while  the  pas- 
sions and  the  will  of  that  sensitive  and  imperious 
people  were  given  unbridled  indulgence.     Civil 
feuds  divided  them  and  made  them  enemies  the 
one   to  the  other.     Religious  faction  and  fanati- 


168  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

cism  were  carried  to  a  strange  excess,  having 
nothing  religious  about  them  but  the  name.  Be- 
sides all  else,  they  chafed  under  the  Roman  yoke 
in  a  vassalage  which  they  could  not  brook,  but 
from  which  they  could  not  free  themselves. 
Fretted  and  excited  and,  more  than  all,  maddened 
against  Christianity  by  the  fact  that  they  had  just 
stained  their  hands  with  the  innocent  blood  of  its 
Founder,  the  Jews  were  in  a  poor  condition  to 
hear  the  faithful  teachings  of  the  apostles. 

Abroad,  the  prospect  was  hardly  better.  En- 
throned in  its  ancient  seats  and  sustained  by  the 
prejudices  and  selfishness  of  its  priests,  paganism 
held  the  nations  in  an  iron  tyranny.  Its  temples 
and  altars  stood  firmly  in  every  land.  Its  dark 
dominion  embraced  the  world.  Its  pampered 
priesthood  extorted  the  awe  and  service  of  the 
people.  Kings  and  warriors  were  its  vassals. 
Even  in  the  most  enlightened  nations,  where  the 
Greek  and  Latin  languages  were  spoken  by  sages 
and  orators,  where  art  was  achieving  its  sublimest 
triumphs,  all  things  were  tributary  to  an  over- 
shadowing superstition.  The  employments  of 
life,  the  customs  of  society,  the  education  of  the 
people,  the  sympathies  of  the  popular  mind,  all 
circled  around  the  debasing  false  worship  as 
around  a  common  center.  Whether,  therefore, 
we  consider  the  mission  of  the  apostles  as  among 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  159 

the  Jews  or  among  the  Gentiles,  we  see  that 
it  was  one  requiring  uncommon  patience,  pru- 
dence, fortitude,  and  faith.  Above  all,  it  required 
the  co-operating  energy  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  apostles  undertook  the  great  task.  In- 
spired by  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  were  ready  to 
undertake  it.  To  the  Jews  they  were  prepared  to 
announce  their  long-expected  Messiah  in  the 
crucified  and  risen  Jesus.  To  the  pagans  they 
were  bold  to  declare  the  unknown  God  whom  they 
worshiped  in  ignorance,  and  the  way  to  him 
through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Their  great  duty 
to  all  men  was  to  preach  the  crucified  and  living 
Saviour.  To  do  this  eff'ectively,  they  were  em- 
powered to  work  miracles  whenever  it  was  neces- 
sary to  arrest  the  attention  of  men  or  to  establish 
their  own  divine  commission.  Their  duty  led 
them  to  oppose  the  ceremonial  and  traditions  of 
the  Jews,  the  corrupting  rites  and  worship  of  the 
pagans. 

Another  part  of  their  mission  was  to  gather 
into  Christian  communities  all  those  who  in 
every  place  could  be  influenced  to  renounce  their 
wrong  life  and  by  faith  to  accept  of  Christ. 
Churches,  simple  in  their  organization,  were 
therefore  planted  in  the  cities  where  the  apostles 
were  successful  in  their  labors.  These  churches 
consisted  of  those  who  openly  confessed  Christ  as 


160  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

their  Lord  and  Saviour.  Their  members  were 
united  as  brethren  in  fellowship  for  their  own 
growth  and  in  testimony  before  the  unbelieving 
world.  They  chose  their  own  teachers,  adopted 
their  own  regulations,  disciplined  their  own  mem- 
bers, and  exercised  all  the  functions  which  be- 
long to  independent,  sovereign  commonwealths. 
The  members  of  each  church  were  the  court  of 
final  appeal  in  cases  of  doubt  and  difficulty 
that  arose  amongst  them.  Their  officers  con- 
sisted of  elders  and  deacons.  The  elders  are 
also  called  bishops,  overseers,  pastors.  They 
were  the  teachers  of  the  churches,  while  the 
deacons  were  their  assistants,  attending  more 
particularly  to  the  secular  affairs  of  the  congre- 
gations. Speaking  of  this  subject,  the  learned 
Mosheim  remarks :  "  A  bishop,  during  the  first 
and  second  centuries,  was  a  person  who  had 
the  care  of  one  Christian  assembly,  which,  at 
that  time,  was  generally  small  enough  to  be 
contained  in  a  private  house.  He  instructed 
the  people,  performed  the  several  parts  of  di- 
vine worship,  attended  the  sick,  and  inspected 
the  circumstances  and  supplies  of  the  poor." 

The  planting  of  such  churches  was  a  part 
of  the  apostolic  work.  Unlike  the  prophets,  who 
sought  to  vitalize  the  ancient  economy  of  the 
Hebrews,  and   through  this  to  bring  the  people 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  161 

back  to  a  spiritual  life,  the  apostles  rejected 
the  old,  and  aimed  to  build  up  a  new  divine, 
permanent  commonwealth,  not  confined  to  one 
people,  but  destined  to  embrace  the  world. 

The  ads  and  success  of  the  apostles  are  a 
marked  feature  of  this  epoch.  The  death  of 
Jesus  was  an  era  of  moment  in  their  lives. 
Before  that  event  they  had  been  learners ;  after  it 
they  became  leaders.  Before  it  they  were  weak, 
timid,  ignorant;  after  it  they  were  strong, 
bold,  able  to  cope  with  the  wisest.  Especially 
did  the  Pentecostal  baptism — when,  as  they 
were  assembled  in  one  place,  a  sudden  sound 
as  of  a  rushing  tempest  filled  the  house,  and 
tremulous  tongues,  like  sundered  flames,  rested 
upon  the  head  of  each  one  there — date  the 
commencement  of  a  new  life  for  the  apos- 
tles. That  was  the  manifest  descent  of  the 
Comforter  whose  presence  Christ  had  promised. 
The  apostles  went  forth  from  the  sanctuary  in- 
spired men,  with  a  new  sense  of  their  work  and 
with  new  ability  to  discharge  it.  To  the  multi- 
tudes who  had  come  up  to  the  feast  of  Pentecost 
"  from  every  nation  under  heaven,"  they  pro- 
claimed, in  various  languages,  "  the  mighty  works 
of  God."  Christ,  crucified  and  risen,  was  the  cen- 
tral theme  of  their  discourse.  Boldly  did  the 
apostles  charge  upon  the  Jews  the  guilt  of  be- 
11 


162  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

ing  the  murderers  of  Christ;  clearly  did  they 
maintain  that  he  whom  they  had  slain  was 
none  other  than  their  Lord  and  Christ. 

The  first  apostolic  sermon,  preached  in  the 
most  extraordinary  circumstances,  was  a  marked 
illustration  of  the  power  of  the  gospel  and  of 
the  influence  of  that  divine  Agent  who  was 
thenceforth  to  attend  it.  The  vast  multitude 
was  convicted  of  sin;  the  question,  which  since 
that  time  has  been  asked  wherever  the  gospel  has 
been  preached,  was  heard,  "What  shall  we  do?" 
and  three  thousand  souls  were  on  that  day 
added  to  the  disciples.  Fear  fell  on  the  multi- 
tude; wonders  and  signs  attested  the  divine 
authority  by  which  the  apostles  acted.  Tliat 
was  the  beginning  of  great  things  for  Chris- 
tianity. In  the  name  of  Christ,  miracles  were 
wrought  not  less  wonderful  than  those  which 
marked  the  Saviour's  ministry.  His  name,  his 
cross,  possessed  a  power  over  men  which  far 
surpassed  the  power  of  any  other  religion. 
Wherever  the  Christian  converts  went,  there 
went  an  influence  which  wrought  a  change  of  life, 
a  renovation  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 
A  new  power  was  acknowledged  among  the  in- 
stitutions and  dominions  of  men — a  power 
blessed,  all-controlling,  and  destined,  in  the  lapse 
of  ages,  to  convert  the  world  to  Christ, 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  163 

For  some  time,  amidst  alternate  successes  and 
discouragements,  with  persecutions  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  triumphs  of  the  gospel  on  the  other 
hand,  the  apostles  continued  their  labors  at  Je- 
rusalem. In  open  rebuke  and  defiance  of  both 
Jewish  and  Roman  power  they  persisted  in 
preaching  the  word.  Within  the  Hebrew  tem- 
ple, where  the  forms  of  the  ancient  worship, 
impressive  in  their  decay,  still  lingered ;  beneath 
the  bulwarks  of  the  castle  of  Antonia,  where  the 
iron  warriors  of  Rome  awed  the  turbulent  popu- 
lace and  maintained  the  dominion  of  the  all- 
grasping  empire :  they  planted  and  nourished  an 
institution  which  should  survive  when  temple 
and  empire  should  have  passed  away,  whose 
worship  should  become  the  worship  of  all  peoples, 
and  whose  dominion  should  embrace  all  nations. 

But  the  time  soon  came  when  it  was  important 
that  the  gospel  should  be  borne  abroad,  when  to 
the  Jews  who  were  scattered  throughout  the  world, 
and  to  the  Gentiles  who  were  dwelling  in  dark- 
ness, Christ  should  be  made  known.  The  wider 
and  more  thorough  diffusion  of  the  gospel  was 
effected  through  a  strange  agency,  through  the 
malice  of  the  enemies  of  the  new  faith.  Stephen, 
a  faithful  preacher  and  a  powerful  reasoner,  be- 
came their  victim,  the  first  in  a  long  succession 
of  martyrs  to  the  Christian  truth.     The  taste  of 


164  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

blood  produced  the  thirst  for  more,  and  a  bitter 
persecution  scattered  the  disciples  abroad,  where 
God  had  a  work  for  them  to  do.  To  Peter,  the 
first  of  the  apostles,  was  revealed  in  a  vision  the 
great  fact  that  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  fellow-heirs 
with  the  Jews  in  the  inheritance  of  Christ,  a  fact 
which  was  soon  illustrated  under  his  preaching 
in  the  house  of  Cornelius,  an  officer  of  the  Roman 
government,  when  the  Holy  Spirit  descended 
upon  the  Gentiles  and  they  spake  with  tongues 
and  magnified  God. 

From  that  time  the  labors  of  the  apostles  were 
widely  extended.  Peter  traveled  into  the  East, 
beyond  the  bounds  of  Roman  conquest,  amongst 
nations  alien  to  the  Hebrews,  where  oriental  man- 
ners and  customs  prevailed,  and  for  a  while  he 
made  his  residence  in  Babylon.  Tradition  in- 
forms us  of  the  acts  and  successes  of  these  early 
missionaries  throughout  a  great  part  of  the 
known  world,  from  Gaul  to  India,  from  the 
barbarian  regions  of  the  North  to  the  torrid  clime 
of  Ethiopia. 

In  this  wide  field  of  the  apostolic  work  there 
was  one  portion  which  demanded  a  laborer  of 
somewhat  different  qualifications  from  those  of 
the  twelve  apostles.  For  that  service  Providence 
had  raised  up  one,  who,  the  son  of  Jewish  parents, 
was  also  a  free-born  citizen  of  Rome  and  was 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  165 

educated  in  the  best  learning  of  his  time.  Tarsus 
was  "  no  mean  city."  Enriched  by  the  products 
of  the  highest  existing  civihzation,  distinguished 
for  its  schools  and  philosophers,  as  well  as  for  the 
general  intelligence  of  its  citizens,  rich  in  classic 
and  historic  associations,  the  favorite  of  Roman 
emperors,  it  was  the  suitable  home  of  the  youth 
whose  future  mission,  as  a  preacher  of  the  gospel, 
would  lead  him  among  the  polished  cities  of 
Greece  and  even  to  plant  the  Church  of  Christ 
within  the  walls  of  imperial  Rome  itself.  There 
the  early  years  of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles 
were  spent,  learning  from  his  parents,  who  edu- 
cated him  according  to  the  strict  observances  of 
the  straitest  sect  of  the  Jews,  and  from  the  scholarly 
people  with  whom  he  daily  mingled,  until,  him- 
self a  stern  Pharisee,  and  acquainted  with  the 
works  of  Grecian  poets  and  philosophers,  he  was 
removed  to  Jerusalem  and  placed  under  the  tu- 
ition of  the  celebrated  Gamaliel,  a  teacher  of  the 
law  and  theology  of  the  Hebrews.  It  was  with 
no  feelings  of  approbation  that  this  ambitious 
and  fiery  student  beheld  the  growth  of  Christian- 
ity. A  three-stranded  cord  of  strength  bound 
and  held  him  to  a  fierce  opposition.  As  a  free- 
born  Roman  citizen  he  was  allied  to  that  great 
heathen  imperialism  which  was  holding  the 
scepter  of  the  world,  whose  unconquered  soldiers 


166  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

were  asserting  their  dominance  over  barbarian 
and  cultured  people  alike.  As  a  Grecian  scholar 
he  felt  the  pride  of  human  learning  and  gloried 
in  what  the  wisdom  of  the  schools  and  the 
studies  of  philosophy  could  do  for  the  enrichment 
of  mankind.  As  a  Jewish  bigot,  rigidly  taught 
in  the  tenets  of  that  separate  people,  he  looked 
with  cherished  aversion,  with  defiant  and  bitter 
scorn  upon  a  religion  that  seemed  to  threaten 
the  polity  of  his  fathers.  There  was  no  man  then 
living  who  had  more  in  his  birth  and  training 
and  the  quality  of  his  mind  and  the  peculiarities 
of  his  position  to  make  him  an  uncompromising 
foe  of  Christianity.  He  was  its  bitterest  inquis- 
itor and  persecutor. 

A  day  came,  in  the  progress  of  the  new  faith, 
which  was  critical  and  crucial.  Would  it  stand 
the  test  of  bloody  martyrdom?  One  of  its 
preachers,  a  man  full  of  grace  and  power,  at 
whose  hands  great  wonders  and  signs  were 
wrought,  stood  forth  in  such  pre-eminence  that 
it  was  determined  to  crush  him.  He  was  brought 
before  a  prejudiced  council,  in  whose  presence  his 
face  was  as  it  had  been  the  face  of  an  angel. 
Unable  to  answer  his  able  historical  plea,  they 
hurried  him  out  of  the  city  and  stoned  him  to 
death.  A  proud  young  man,  Roman  by  birth, 
Grecian  by  studious  taste,  Jew  by  religion,  stood 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  167 

there  consenting  to  that  first  Christian  tragedy. 
"  And  the  witnesses  laid  down  their  garments  at 
the  feet  of  a  young  man  named  Saul."  This  is 
our  introduction  to  Saul.  From  that  time  the 
passion  of  persecution  possessed  him  like  a 
demon.  He  laid  waste  the  church;  he  entered 
into  every  Christian  house ;  he  dragged  men  and 
women  to  prison.  He  breathed  threats  and 
slaughter  against  the  disciples  of  the  Lord.  He 
determined,  by  fierce  and  fiery  strokes,  to  extir- 
pate the  new  faith. 

In  the  north  of  Syria  stood  the  oldest  city  of 
the  world.  It  had  been  renowned  from  the 
days  of  the  patriarchs.  It  was  called  "  The 
Eye  of  the  East."  It  looked  forth  on  the  great 
routes  of  the  merchant  caravans.  It  was  the 
rich  center  of  trade  and  wide-reaching  commerce. 
The  merchant  princes  of  the  Orient  came  up  to  its 
prolific  marts.  Loaded  caravans  traversed  its 
streets.  The  "rivers  of  Damascus"  were  famed 
for  their  purity  and  coolness.  Flowing  from  Leb- 
anon, they  carried  fertility  and  beauty  to  the  city 
whose  white  dwellings  shone  in  the  eastern  sun- 
shine amidst  gardens  of  roses  of  royal  tints  and 
flowers  in  wealthy  variety.  It  was  a  sight  worth 
going  far  to  see  in  that  day,  as  it  is  in  this  day. 

Against  that  city  of  marvelous  wealth  and 
beauty,  where  the  gospel  was  gaining  a  stroiyg 


168  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

foothold,  this  ardent  persecutor  leveled  liis  onset. 
With  his  fierce  retainers,  he  spurred  along  the 
hard  Roman  roads  for  one  hundred  and  thirty -six 
miles,  until,  on  a  sunny  noon,  as  his  cavalcade 
gained  an  eminence,  that  splended  city  burst  on 
their  view,  an  oasis  of  beauty,  set  like  a  gem  in 
the  gray  and  blazing  desert. 

Suddenly  a  light  brighter  than  the  fiery  sun  of 
the  desert  flashed  upon  him.  Before  it  he  and 
his  company  fell  to  the  ground,  and  a  question  of 
arrest  rang  on  his  startled  ear.  Not  for  that 
had  he  left  Jerusalem.  Yet,  perhaps,  all  the  way 
the  face  of  the  transfigured  martyr  had  been 
haunting  him  and  the  voices  of  the  women  and 
children  whom  he  had  cruelly  wronged  had 
echoed  in  his  soul.  The  last  words  that  he  had 
heard  from  the  martyr  were  words  of  trust  in 
Jesus.  The  first  words  that  he  now  heard  from 
heaven  in  response  to  his  anxious  question, 
"  Who  art  thou.  Lord  ?"  were,  "  I  am  Jesus  whom 
thou  persecutest."  He  was  convicted,  and  his 
sins  stood  out  before  him.  His  Saviour,  contrary 
to  whom  he  had  thought  he  ought  to  do  many 
things,  was  revealed  to  him.  A  great  revolution 
took  place  in  all  his  thoughts  and  feelings,  pur- 
poses and  life.  The  voice  that  spoke  to  him  from 
heaven  was  in  "the  Hebrew  tongue,"  his  own 
mother  tongue,  the  language  of  the  Christians 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  169 

whom  he  had  hunted,  the  language  of  the  expir- 
ing martyr  as  he  had  prayed  with  his  last  breath, 
"  Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge."  It  went 
home  to  Saul's  inmost  soul.  It  announced  the  fact 
which  he  would  most  like  to  forget.  It  told  him 
of  a  living  truth  that  he  was  trying  to  ride  down 
and  stamp  out.  It  put  first  that  which  he  would 
put  last.  He  believed  in  heaven,  though  he  did 
not  believe  in  Christ.  But  out  of  heaven  came 
the  thrilling  message,  "  I  am  Jesus !"  It  was  irre- 
sistible. From  the  depth  of  his  being  came  the 
overwhelming  cry,  sweeping,  like  a  flood,  all 
before  it,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?" 
That  settled  the  matter.  It  was  an  entire  sur- 
render. It  carried  Saul  over  from  one  side  to 
the  other.  It  changed  the  persecutor  into  an 
apostle. 

The  sight  of  the  glory  struck  "Saul  blind,  and 
for  three  days  he  was  shut  up  within  himself. 
He  was  in  golden  Damascus,  but  its  outward 
beauties  were  hidden  to  him :  another  beauty  was 
unfolding  itself  to  his  restored  soul.  Seeing  noth- 
ing of  this  world,  he  came  to  sight  of  things  of 
the  other  world.  For  all  these  days  this  question 
echoed  in  Saul's  mind:  "Why  persecutest  thou 
Me?"  The  Me  became  great,  all-absorbing;  it 
filled  the  whole  horizon  of  his  thought  and  cov- 
ered the  sunless  heaven  of  his  imagination.    That 


170  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

Me  had  been  of  small  account,  had  been  hated, 
had  been  a  name  of  contempt  and  ignominy. 
It  rose  like  a  sun  at  morning,  clear  on  his  inner 
vision,  waxing  in  volume  of  light  and  luster  un- 
til it  filled  all  the  firmament  with  its  burning 
glory.  Thereafter  there  was  but  one  Name — Je- 
sus was  all.  The  Me  who  was  revealed  on  the 
high-road  to  Damascus  was  he  whom  Saul  had 
persecuted.  In  the  thought  of  what  he  had  been 
doing  he  lived  over  his  whole  life.  His  early 
days,  his  education,  the  Scriptures  of  his  nation, 
and  their  hopes  and  their  forlorn  fate,  passed 
before  him.  The  new  faith,  the  wonder  of  Cal- 
vary, the  story  of  the  resurrection  and  the  ascen- 
sion, the  miracles  and  the  preaching  of  the  apos- 
tles, the  advice  of  Gamaliel  at  whose  feet  he  had 
sat,  the  tragic  martyrdom  of  Stephen,  the  prisons 
he  had  filled  with  the  Lord's  disciples,  his  ride 
across  Palestine,  and  his  fierce  errand  at  Damascus, 
crowded  his  blind  days  of  fasting.  Then  Christ 
was  revealed.  Saul  saw  that  there  was  pardon 
and  peace  in  him.  It  was  not  by  human  inter- 
vention he  had  been  arrested.  It  was  by  the  Lord 
himself 

Straightway  there  fell  from  his  eyes  as  it  were 
scales.  He  had  the  full  vision  of  the  Lord.  From 
that  darkened  room  he  walked  forth  into  un- 
clouded  day,  the   day  of    devoted  service.     The 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  171 

conversion  was  one  that  carried  the  whole  man 
with  it.  He  was  a  new  man:  old  things  had 
passed  away  ;  all  things  had  become  new.  Paul's 
new  birth  was  a  birth  into  complete  Christian  life. 
He  committed  himself,  soul  and  body  to  the  Lord 
Jesus.  Immediately  he  confessed  his  faith  and 
was  "  with  the  disciples."  He  abandoned  forever 
his  old  associates  and  his  old  habits  and  opinions, 
and  boldly  proclaimed  Jesus.  We  are  not  sur- 
prised to  read  that  he  "  increased  the  more  in 
strength."  Chrysostom  says  of  him,  "  Christ,  like 
a  skillful  physician,  healed  him  when  his  fever 
was  at  the  worst."     It  was  a  thorough  healing. 

The  conversion  of  Paul  was  complete,  and 
made  him  thenceforward  to  be  Paul,  the  great 
apostle,  the  self-sacrificing,  heroic  soldier  of  the 
cross.  Think  of  what  he  renounced  !  He  was  a 
man  of  liberal  learning,  which  might  have  placed 
him  amongst  the  foremost  of  his  nation.  All 
that  learning  he  consecrated  to  Christ.  He  was, 
probably,  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin  and  there- 
fore in  the  place  of  power.  All  that  power  he 
consecrated  to  Christ.  He  was  where  he  might 
have  gained  wealth  and  fame.  He  allied  himself 
to  a  sect  that  was  everywhere  spoken  against  and 
was  despised,  and  he  became  its  foremost  advo- 
cate. He  was  a  partaker  of  Christ's  sufferings. 
He  breathed  love. 


172  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

There  is  something  very  beautiful  in  his  wish 
to  see  Peter.  He  had  seen  Christ :  he  wanted  to 
see  Christ's  friend.  He  had  been,  for  three  years 
in  the  theological  school  of  the  desert,  where  he 
unlearned  the  old  past  of  his  education  and  had 
begun  the  study  of  the  new  faith.  Coming  again 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  brethren  and  feeling  the 
excitements  of  the  great  conflict  between  the  old 
faith  and  the  new,  he  desired  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  leader  of  the  Church,  and  he  traveled 
back  over  the  old  route  from  Damascus  to  Jeru- 
salem, and  for  fifteen  days  those  two  great  apostles 
were  together  in  the  home  of  Peter.  We  can 
only  imagine  their  conversations  and  their 
prayers  with  one  another.  Peter  took  Paul  to  his 
heart,  and  Paul  was  made  strong  and  happy  by 
his  welcome.  Ananias  called  him  "  Brother 
Saul."  Barnabas  took  him  by  the  hand  and  intro- 
duced him  to  the  company  of  the  apostles.  Peter 
received  him  into  his  own  home,  as  if  he  were  an  old 
friend.  All  the  brethren  cared  for  him,  watched 
over  him,  thwarted  his  enemies,  and  rejoiced  with 
him  in  all  that  he  could  do  for  Christ.  From 
that  time  commenced  a  career  full  of  marvel, 
full  of  human  courage  and  divine  benediction. 

Behold  the  new  defender  of  the  truth,  the  pow- 
erful preacher  of  the  gospel !  In  the  synagogue 
of  Damascus,  to  the  amazement  of  all  who  heard 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  173 

him,  he  maintained  the  Messiahship  of  Christ. 
Against  strong  antagonists  he  battled  for  the 
Church  which  he  once  sought  to  destroy.  The 
fiery  soul  of  that  learned  Jew,  with  all  its  daring 
and  power,  w^as  consecrated  to  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth. 

A  great  work  was  to  be  done,  and  a  great  soul 
was  needed  for  it.  Paul  set  forth  on  his  apostle- 
ship.  In  Jerusalem,  the  city  that  he  loved,  where 
he  had  passed  pleasant  years  as  a  pupil  of  Ga- 
maliel, where  he  had  been  known  as  the  fiercest 
opponent  of  the  despised  Nazarene,  he  boldly 
spoke  for  his  new  Master.  That,  however,  was 
not  Paul's  appointed  place  of  labor.  God  had 
destined  him  for  another  sphere.  He  was  to  be 
the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  After  spending  some 
years  in  his  native  city.  Tarsus,  he  was  called  to 
labor  at  Antioch,  where  the  gospel  had  already 
met  with  signal  success.  From  that  time  he  was  in 
labors  more  abundant.  His  life  became  a  succession 
of  masterly  and  untiring  efforts,  followed  by  bril- 
liant triumphs  for  the  gospel.  From  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  along  the  shores  of 
the  ^gean,  to  Italy,  he  proclaimed  Christ  as  the 
Saviour  of  men.  His  first  missionary  tour  led 
him  to  Cyprus  and  to  the  southeastern  portion  of 
Asia  Minor ;  his  second,  to  the  northern  and  west- 
ern portion  till  he  reached  the  spot  where  Troy 


174  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

was.  A  call  came  across  the  blue  ^gean  from 
Macedonia,  "  Come  over  and  help  us,"  and  Paul 
hastened  to  plant  the  standard  of  the  cross  on  the 
soil  of  Europe.  Oh,  could  the  eye  of  the  apostle 
have  glanced  through  coming  ages  and  could  he 
have  read  a  prophecy  of  the  nations,  and  known 
how  Europe,  then  enshrouded  in  the  deep  dark- 
ness of  paganism,  should  one  day  become  the  seat 
of  powerful  Christian  states,  whose  people  also 
should  fill  another  hemisphere  with  Christian 
institutions,  how  would  his  heart  have  still  more 
exulted  in  the  glorious  mission  which  he  had 
undertaken !  Paul  the  first  preacher  of  the  gos- 
pel in  Europe !  Who  so  worthy  as  he  to  intro- 
duce the  knowledge  of  Christ  to  the  occidental 
nations !  to  become  the  predecessor  of  the  loyal 
and  learned  propagators  of  Christianity  in  the 
countries  that  are  the  rulers  of  the  world !  While 
the  oriental  churches  have  fallen  or  have  become 
mournfully  corrupt  and  inefficient,  has  not  the 
spirit  of  Paul  lingered  most  in  those  of  the 
West? 

Among  the  most  interesting  scenes  in  the  life 
of  this  greatest  apostle  are  those  which  present  us 
with  his  labors  and  successes  in  the  great  and 
splendid  cities  of  that  age,  as  at  Athens,  at  Cor- 
inth, at  Ephesus,  and  at  Rome.  Within  these 
august  and  powerful  capitals,  where  learning,  art 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  175 

and  opulence  had  their  chosen  seats,  idolatry 
also  had  most  securely  and  firmly  entrenched  and 
enthroned  itself.  It  was  allied  to  the  state  and  to 
the  schools,  and  it  held  to  its  support  the  busi- 
ness, the  prejudices,  and  the  pleasures  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  was  no  slight  task,  nor  one  free  from 
hazard,  to  attack  this  guarded  and  cherished 
paganism. 

It  was  therefore  a  noble  and  impressive  scene, 
one  which  the  artists  have  wrought  with  fine  effect 
— Paul  addressing  the  men  of  Athens.  Before  the 
high  court  of  the  Areopagus,  amidst  the  sages 
and  scholars  of  that  academic  city,  surrounded 
by  the  gorgeous  monuments  of  Athenian  pride, 
power,  and  art — the  splendid  shrines,  the  col- 
umned temples,  and,  more  imposing  than  all,  the 
world-famed  Parthenon,  crowned  with  the  lofty 
statue  of  Athens'  guardian  goddess,  at  the  sight 
of  which  the  joyous  exiles  wept  as,  after  years  of 
absence,  they  returned  again  to  their  native  city — 
the  apostle  boldly  and  impressively  declared  the 
great  truths  which  Plato  dimly  foresaw  and 
which  Socrates  would  have  gladly  welcomed, 
with  an  eloquence  which  vied  with  that  of 
Athens'  greatest  orator. 

Corinth  was  at  that  time  in  the  zenith  of  her 
glory :  enriched  by  the  commerce  of  surrounding 
peoples,  graced  and  beautified  by  her  own  mag- 


176  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

nificent  works  of  art  and  by  that  elaborate  archi- 
tecture which  for  two  thousand  years  has  perpet- 
uated the  Corinthian  name.  At  the  same  time 
she  was  at  the  nadir  of  her  wickedness :  filled 
with  luxury,  corrupt  with  vices,  and  given  up  to 
a  debasing  idolatry.  There  and  at  Ephesus,  then 
the  metropolis  of  Asia  and  the  center  of  a  most 
polluting  worship,  Paul  proclaimed  the  gospel, 
and  planted  Christian  churches  into  which  he 
gathered  many  converts. 

For  a  long  time  before  he  was  permitted  to  enjoy 
the  privilege,  he  longed  to  visit  Rome  also,  that 
he  might  preach  the  gospel  in  that  center  of  power 
and  greatness.  He  desired  that  Christ  should  be 
known  in  that  illustrious  capital  of  the  world, 
and  he  was  willing  to  encounter  all  that  was 
necessary  to  secure  that  object.  He  knew  what 
extensive  influence  would  be  wielded  by  a  city 
whose  conquering  arms  were  irresistible,  whose 
dominion  extended  from  the  pillars  of  Hercules 
to  the  Euxine,  from  the  forests  of  Gaul  and  the 
white  cliffs  of  Britain  to  the  shadows  of  Mount 
Atlas  and  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile,  and  within 
whose  walls  were  gathered  men  illustrious  in 
literature,  jurisprudence,  and  art.  Providence 
brought  the  veteran  apostle  to  Rome,  and  his 
heart  was  gladdened  by  the  success  of  the  gospel 
there,  even  within  the  household  of   Csesar.     It 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  177 

was  at  Rome,  in  the  calm  evening  of  his  toilsome 
and  turbulent  life,  that  he  wrote  those  beautiful 
and  pathetic  words  to  his  son  Timothy,  "  I  am 
already  being  offered,  and  the  time  of  my  depart- 
ure is  come.  I  have  fought  the  good  fight,  I  have 
finished  the  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith  :  hence- 
forth there  is  laid  up  for  me  the  crown  of  right- 
eousness, which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge, 
shall  give  to  me  at  that  day:  and  not  only  to  me, 
but  also  to  all  them  that  have  loved  his  appear- 
ing." This  may  be  considered  as  the  dying  testi- 
mony of  that  most  remarkable  man,  that  most 
laborious  apostle. 

Next  to  the  name  of  Christ  on  the  records  of 
Christianity  stands  the  name  of  Paul.  There 
may  have  been  greater  men  than  Paul.  We 
recognize  the  imperial  place  of  Plato;  the  mys- 
terious sway  of  Confucius ;  the  genius  of  Homer. 
Conquerors,  philosophers,  philanthropists,  there 
have  been,  from  time  to  time,  who  have  impressed 
the  world,  who  have  molded  institutions  and  laws 
and  human  thought — great  men  in  their  day  and 
way,  but  who  have  passed  and  whose  work  has 
not  had  the  one  quality  of  imperishableness.  Paul 
laid  foundations  which  have  remained  and 
are  permanent.  The  churches,  indeed,  which  he 
planted  have  not  all  survived ;  but  as  under  the 
ruins  and  rubbish  on  which  modern  cities  are 

12 


178  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

builded  the  workmen  come  to  the  massive  blocks 
on  which  old  walls,  old  temples,  old  structures  of 
various  kinds,  stood,  so  the  eternal  truths,  on 
which  the  lapsed  churches  were  founded,  remain, 
and  on  the  very  places  of  their  ancient  rise  and 
glory  the  revived,  restored  churches  of  Christ 
are  again  replanted;  while  all  abroad,  in  new 
lands  and  among  other  peoples,  those  truths, 
through  the  undying  words  of  Paul,  have 
been  through  all  the  Christian  ages  building  up 
permanent  forces  in  the  wide  world. 

The  service  of  this  great  man  was  a  ministry 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.  That  was  the  inward  charm 
of  it.  That  was  the  light  that  shone  in  it  like  the 
clear  light  of  gems.  That  gave  the  glory  to  his 
wonderful  career.  Christ  was  in  Paul,  and  the  life 
that  he  lived  in  the  world  was  the  life  of  Jesus. 
The  gold  that  was  woven  into  the  royal  fabric  of 
his  being  was  the  love  of  Christ.  He  knew  what 
he  owed  to  the  Saviour,  and  to  him  Christ  was  all 
in  all.  In  the  capitals  of  the  world,  where  Cicero 
had  addressed  the  Roman  senate  and  where 
Demosthenes  had  delivered  his  matchless  Oration 
for  the  Crown,  Paul  spoke  on  higher  themes  and 
for  grander  issues  than  theirs.  On  the  track  of 
the  great  empire  the  iron  prows  of  whose  galleys 
had  plowed  their  victorious  way  from  the  surf  of 
the   Atlantic    beyond   the    Hellespont,  and    the 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  179 

scream  of  whose  eagles  had  been  heard  from  the 
remotest  Occident  to  the  boundaries  of  the  empire 
of  Alexander  in  the  Orient,  he  planted  the  germs 
of  a  wider  sovereignty  and  saw  the  hopeful  begin- 
nings of  a  purer  dominion.  Pie  left  to  the  suc- 
ceeding centuries  the  testimony  of  his  peerless 
consecration,  w^hile  his  living  Letters  are  a 
legacy  which  rank  him  as  the  chief  of  the 
glorious  company  of  the  apostles. 

Little  is  known  of  the  deaths  of  the  apostles. 
Something  is  told  us  of  their  lives,  and  that  is  by 
far  the  more  important.  Some  of  them  died  at 
the  hands  of  cruel  men,  but  they  counted  not 
their  lives  dear  unto  themselves ;  they  rejoiced  to 
suffer  and  even  to  die  for  the  name  of  Christ. 
They  were  ready  to  meet  their  Teacher  and 
Friend,  their  beloved  Saviour,  and  it  mattered 
little  to  them  when  the  summons  should  call 
them  to  his  presence.  In  the  vision  which  John  had 
of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  he  saw  that  the  walls 
of  that  glorious  city  had  twelve  foundations,  and 
that  in  them  were  inscribed  the  names  of  the 
twelve  apostles  of  the  Lamb.  It  is  through  their 
fidelity  and  service  that  the  heavenly  city  is  one  of 
security  and  strength  for  the  disciples  of  Christ. 

The  years  of  their  ministr}^  were  most  marked 
for  the  victories  of  Christianity.  Originating, 
under  Christ,  the  vast  project  of  the  world's  re- 


180  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

demption,  they  entered  upon  the  work  as  one  to 
be  accomplished.  It  was  a  work  that  God  had 
put  into  their  hands  and  he  expected  them  to  do 
their  duty.  They  did  not  pause  to  consider  the 
obstacles  and  opposition  which  they  were  certain 
to  encounter ;  they  did  not  hesitate  because  they 
were  few  and  feeble  and  because  superstition  and 
paganism  were  strong  and  strongly  entrenched 
within  ancient  barriers  of  customs  and  selfish- 
ness ;  they  did  not  waver  because  the  wealth  and 
learning  of  the  world  were  not  with  them.  They 
knew  that  God  was  with  them ;  they  felt  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Holy  Spirit  moving  them ;  they 
were  confident  that  through  Christ  strengthening 
them  they  could  do  all  things.  The  results  of 
their  devotion  and  sacrifice  were  monumental. 
Within  thirty  years  after  the  ascension  of  Christ, 
Christianity  had  become  one  of  the  most  powerful 
of  existing  religions.  It  had  superseded  to  a  great 
extent  the  ancient  Hebrew  economy,  had  over- 
thrown in  its  triumphant  career  long-established 
paganism,  and  had  gained  a  firm  foothold  in  the 
most  important  capitals  of  the  earth,  even  in  im- 
perial Rome  itself,  the  mistress  of  the  world.  It 
then  became  apparent  that  there  were  agencies 
connected  with  this  new  religion  sufficient  to  sup- 
plant other  institutions  and  dominions  and  to 
secure  its  universal  and  final  triumph. 


THE  APOSTOLIC.  181 

The  apostolic  epoch  passed  away ;  but  the  work 
which  the  apostles  began  went  forward  and  is  still 
advancing.  We  are  summoned  to  emulate  their 
example.  Still  is  borne  to  our  ears  the  cry  which 
rolled  over  the  ^gean,  from  the  realm  of  Alex- 
ander to  the  silent  chambers  of  the  apostle  Paul, 
"  Come  over  and  help  us !" 


EPOCH  VIII. 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 


The  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  amongst  men 
is  probably  confined  within  no  limited  epoch  of 
their  history.  His  work  began  with  the  com- 
mencement of  man's  moral  being,  and  it  will  end 
only  with  the  termination  of  the  human  race. 
Yet  the  more  particular  manifestation  of  the 
Spirit  as  a  distinct  and  active  Agent  in  the  affairs 
of  the  world  belongs  to  the  period  succeeding  the 
ascension  of  Christ.  Before  that  time  men  did  not 
know  that  there  was  a  Holy  Ghost.  He  had  ener- 
gized in  the  ancient  saints,  he  had  spoken  through 
the  prophets,  he  had  inspired  the  writers  of  the 
ancient  Scriptures,  he  had  striven  with  the  sinners 
of  the  olden  time  and  had  been  vexed  by  them, 
and  by  his  agency  a  godly  seed  had  been  contin- 
ued from  age  to  age,  through  the  earlier  divine 
dispensations.  Yet  his  ministration  was  not  of 
that  distinctive  character  by  which  it  was  marked 
on  and  after  the  day  of  Pentecost.  There  had 
been  outward   appliances,   sacrifices,   ceremonial 

185 


186  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

observances,  visible  splendors,  voices,  visits  of 
angels,  visions,  by  which  men  were  gained  to 
God  and  kept  near  and  loyal  to  him.  The  fact 
of  the  Trinity  had  not  been  made  known :  this 
belonged  to  a  later  revelation. 

In  opposition  to  the  polytheism  of  the  Gentiles, 
and  to  check  the  polytheistic  tendencies  of  the 
Jews,  Jehovah  had  been  announced  as  the  one 
only  living  and  true  God,  and  the  fact  of  his 
unity  had  been  kept  clearly  before,  and  impressed 
strongly  upon,  the  fickle  Hebrew  mind.  Al- 
though there  had  been  some  obscure  intimations 
of  a  pluralism  in  this  one  Godhead,  before  the 
coming  of  Christ,  yet  it  was  not  till  the  New  Tes- 
tament times  that  the  revelation  was  made  of  the 
three  persons  in  one  God. 

A  new  dispensation  began :  a  fuller  revelation 
to  men  of  the  Godhead  took  place ;  the  bonds  and 
ritual  of  the  old  theocracy  passed  away ;  the  Holy 
Spirit  became  a  recognized  factor  in  the  progress 
of  the  kingdom  of  God ;  he  became  a  Shekinah 
within  every  man,  and  his  still,  small  voice  spake 
to  every  soul.  No  longer  were  the  blessings  of  the 
covenant  to  be  confined  to  a  particular  people,  nor 
was  God  to  be  acceptably  worshiped  only  on  Mount 
Moriah  or  on  Gerizim.  There  was  to  be  a  broader 
economy.  The  blessings  which  Christ  had  pur- 
chased by  his  all-embracing  atonement  were  to 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  187 

be  borne  to  all  men  by  the  all-prevalent  Spirit. 
So  direct  and  palpable  and  powerful  were  to  be 
the  manifestations  and  operations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  under  the  new  economy  that  it  would  be 
considered  as  the  dispensation  of  the  Third  Person 
of  the  Godhead,  and  so  intimately  and  efficiently 
was  his  agency  to  be  connected  with  the  means  to 
be  employed  for  the  conversion  of  the  world,  that 
they  were  unitedly  to  be  designated  as  the  Minis- 
tration of  the  Spirit. 

On  the  night  of  his  betrayal,  amidst  the  so- 
lemnities and  sorrows  of  that  sacramental  occa- 
sion, when  Jesus  mysteriously  announced  to  his 
beloved  disciples  the  gloomy  events  that  were 
before  him,  he  took  occasion  to  tell  them  of 
another  Comforter,  who,  in  his  place,  should 
abide  with  them  after  he  should  have  gone  away. 
He  said,  "  It  is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away : 
for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come 

unto  you  ;  but  if  I  go,  I  will  send  him  unto  you 

When  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom  I  will  send 
unto  you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of 
truth  ...  he  shall  bear  witness  of  me.  .  .  .  When 
he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  shall  guide  you 

into  all  the  truth The  Comforter,  even  the  Holy 

Spirit,  whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my  name, 
he  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  to  your 
remembrance  all  that  I  said  unto  you."     To  this 


188  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

divine  Agent  thenceforward  was  to  be  entrusted 
the  superintendence  and  prosecution  of  the  work 
of  the  world's  redemption.  He  is  the  Spirit  of 
power.  He  convinces  the  world  of  sin.  He  sanc- 
tifies those  who  believe  in  Christ.  He  searches 
the  deep  things  of  God.  He  produces  effects  like 
those  of  Pentecost. 

It  is  plain  from  the  Scriptures  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  a  distinct^  divine,  personal  Agent.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  sets  forth  the  existence  of  one 
divine  Being  in  three  separate  Persons,  the  same 
in  substance,  equal  in  power  and  glory :  the 
Father,  the  Son,  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  the  Father 
and  the  Son  have  each  his  part  in  the  work  of 
human  recovery,  so  also  has  the  Spirit  his  part. 
His  personality  is  proved  by  those  statements 
which  ascribe  to  him  personal  attributes  and  acts, 
not  perhaps  as  expressing  all  that  is  true,  but  ex- 
pressing all  that  we  know  to  be  true ;  his  divinity ^ 
by  those  expressions  which  predicate  of  him 
divine  attributes  and  works ;  his  distinct  personal- 
ityy  by  those  statements  which  assign  to  him  cer- 
tain offices  of  his  own  and  separate  from  those  of 
the  Father  and  the  Son.  Thus,  "  The  Comforter, 
even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  whom  I  will  send  unto 
you  from  the  Father."  Again,  there  is  the  Father 
who  sends  him ;  the  Son  in  whose  place  he  is 
sent ;  the  Holy  Spirit  who  is  sent.     The  analogy 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  180 

of  language  would  seem  to  make  the  distinction 
lucid  and  conclusive. 

The  Saviour  had  a  particular  mission  to  fulfill ; 
a  work  of  instruction  and  of  suffering  to  finish, 
during  his  brief  and  eventful  ministr3^  When 
this  was  over  his  place  in  heaven  summoned  him 
back.  What  those  things  are  which  employ  in 
heaven  the  Second  Person  of  the  Godhead  we 
know  only  in  part.  But  the  Scriptures  have 
given  brief  hints  which  are  sufficient  to  assure  us 
that  his  ascension  w\as  of  more  value  to  us  than 
his  personal  presence  here  would  have  been. 
"  When  he  ascended  on  high  ...  he  gave  gifts  unto 
men."  He  left  these  fields  of  conflict  and  hard- 
ship, but  it  was  as  a  conqueror  returning  in 
triumph  to  his  capital  and  distributing  the  spoils 
of  victory.  In  his  Father's  realm  he  is  preparing 
places  for  his  earthly  friends.  In  the  presence  of 
God  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them. 
He  is  our  Advocate  at  the  throne. 

His  bodily  presence  on  earth  would  have  con- 
fined his  agency  to  a  limited  portion  of  the 
Church.  While  his  disciples  were  few  in  number 
and  were  together,  he  could  do  all  that  was 
necessary  for  them ;  but  when  the  little  band 
should  become  powerful  and  numerous  commu- 
nities, when  the  handful  of  corn  in  the  earth  on 
the  top  of  the  mountains  should  have  fruit  which 


190  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

would  shake  like  Lebanon,  when  churches  should 
be  planted  throughout  the  empire  and  in  lands 
east  and  west  where  the  Roman  eagles  never 
flew,  then  there  would  be  need  of  a  Presence  in 
all  those  multiplied  and  separated  churches — need 
of  One  who  should  everywhere  strengthen  and 
encourage  the  ministers  of  the  word,  give  efficacy 
to  the  truth,  open  dark  and  depraved  minds  to 
conviction,  and  carry  on  to  its  completion  the 
good  work  begun  in  the  redeemed. 

The  personal  presence  of  Jesus  on  earth  would 
have  been  likely  to  prevent  true  views  of  the 
spirituality  of  his  kingdom.  The  Hebrew  mind 
was  filled  with  aspirations  for  a  temporal  prince. 
Notwithstanding  all  his  instruction  to  the  con- 
trary, the  disciples  of  Christ,  through  his  whole 
life,  even  after  his  resurrection  and  until  his  as- 
cension, w^ere  looking  for  the  restoration  of  their 
ancient  kingdom  to  Israel.  Had  he  remained  on 
earth,  gross  and  earthly  views  would  have  been 
developed  amongst  his  followers.  When  their 
Leader  had  left  them,  they  saw  that  they  were 
alone,  feeble  men ;  that  no  secular  arm  was  to  be 
nerved  in  their  behalf;  that  their  reliance  must  be 
upon  the  divine,  spiritual  Helper  whom  the 
Saviour  had  promised  to  them.  Then  they  began 
to  feel  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Master  was  in  cease- 
less antagonism  to  the  spirit  of  the  world,  and 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  191 

that  be  was  to  bring  down  a  beavenly  life  to  man. 
To  come  to  tbe  understanding  of  tbis  trutb  was  a 
great  experience  then  ;  is  a  great  thing  now.  Tliere 
was  needed,  and  always  will  be  needed,  tlie  teach- 
ing of  tbe  Holy  Spirit.  There  is  a  powerful  in- 
fluence in  the  invisible  existence  of  Christ,  in  the 
invisible  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  presence 
of  Jesus  as  a  true  man  might  have  produced 
familiarity.  Men  would  have  thronged  around 
him,  as  they  did  during  his  earthly  ministry; 
they  would  have  deserted  their  homes,  their  busi- 
ness, their  country,  for  the  sake  of  being  with  the 
Master,  of  listening  to  his  gracious  words,  of  wit- 
nessing his  stupendous  works,  of  sharing  his 
divine  gifts.  Now^  he  is  exalted  to  the  throne  of 
heaven.  We  supplicate,  we  praise,  we  adore,  we 
serve. 

So  much,  at  least,  may  be  said  as  showing  why 
it  w^as  better  that  Jesus  by  his  departure,  should 
make  way  for  the  advent  and  presence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  than  that  he  should  personally  re- 
main on  earth.  But  the  whole  subject  is  not 
brought  before  us  till  we  consider  the  peculiar 
office-work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  He  came  to  take  the 
place  of  Christ,  to  do  for  the  disciples  what  the 
Saviour  would  have  done  could  he  have  been  per- 
sonally present  with  them.  To  every  believer,  in 
every  place,  throughout  all  time,  he  was  to  give 


192  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

that  aid,  encouragement,  solace,  which  the  blessed 
Saviour  would  have  given  by  his  words,  looks, 
personal  sympathy,  divine  power.  Over  all  Chris- 
tian communities,  in  all  lands,  in  the  strong, 
mature  churches  of  enlightened  states,  in  the 
feeble,  struggling  churches  in  the  midst  of  sur- 
rounding superstition  and  paganism,  he  was  to 
maintain  a  vigorous,  guardian  superintendence, 
increasing  their  members  from  without,  increas- 
ing their  graces  from  within.  To  him  was 
entrusted  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  in  all  its 
multiplied  organizations  and  powerful  agencies. 
He  was  to  sanctify  the  ministry  and  its  member- 
ship ;  to  give  efficacy  to  its  written  and  preached 
word  ;  to  go  with  its  heralds  from  land  to  land — 
in  a  word,  to  make  the  gospel,  in  its  varied  influ- 
ences and  ministries,  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the 
power  of  God  to  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

His  office- work  was  to  be  not  only  in  and  through 
the  churches  of  Christ,  but  also  directly  upon  the 
souls  of  men ;  convincing  them  of  their  own  sin- 
fulness, of  their  relation  to  a  righteous  God,  and 
of  a  coming  retribution,  and  leading  them  to 
repentance  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Wherever  there  was  a  soul  fallen,  estranged  by 
sin  from  God,  there  was  to  be  the  field  of  the  Spirit's 
work.  The  world  in  its  woes,  to  the  extent  of  its 
wretchedness,  is  the  only  limit  to  his  divine  ope- 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  193 

rations.  The  salvation  of  the  world  is  the  object 
of  the  Spirit's  work,  as  it  was  the  object  of  the  Re- 
deemer's work.  As  Christ  tasted  death  for  every 
man,  so  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  is  for  every  man. 

His  office-work  is  therefore  partly  a  work  of 
renewal.  The  mind  that  was  depraved,  perverted, 
lost  to  God  and  averse  to  goodness,  is  brought  to 
love  God,  to  delight  in  his  service,  to  be  holy. 
This  renewal  of  individual  minds,  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  the  great  process  by 
which  the  world  is  to  be  converted  to  God. 

It  is  also  partly  a  work  of  sanctification.  Those 
who  are  renewed  he  leads  on  to  higher  attain- 
ment in  holiness,  to  a  closer  union  with  God. 
He  becomes  their  Instructor.  He  takes  of  the 
things  of  Christ  and  shows  them  to  his  people, 
unfolding  to  them  the  excellence  of  God,  the 
beauty  of  holiness,  the  loveliness  of  the  Christ-like 
spirit.  He  becomes  also  their  Helper,  guarding 
them  from  dangers  and  the  assaults  of  foes,  and 
delivering  them  out  of  all  their  temptations, 
trials,  conflicts.     "  He  helpeth  our  infirmities." 

He  cultivates  in  us  the  spirit  of  prayer,  of 
child-like  faith,  so  that  we  can  look  up  confidently 
to  God  in  all  our  distresses,  and  look  forward  cheer- 
fully to  the  rest  that  remaineth  for  his  people. 
Thus  is  the  promise  of  Jesus  fulfilled,  "I  will  not 
leave  you  orphans." 

13 


194  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

The  history  of  the  Church  testifies  to  the  value 
and  preciousness  of  the  Spirit's  presence.  Where- 
ever  the  gospel  has  gone  in  its  wide  influence  and 
triumphs,  there  the  Holy  Spirit  has  gone  with  it 
to  make  the  truth  mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds.  Nay,  he  has  gone  before  the  gospel, 
preparing  the  heart  to  receive  it,  as  the  soil  is  pre- 
pared for  the  scattered  seed.  He  has  worked  in 
the  hearts  of  the  children  of  disobedience,  causing 
them  to  reflect  and  awakening  them  to  consider 
their  souls'  salvation.  He  has  carried  forward 
the  work  of  sanctification,  in  the  souls  of  believers, 
until  death  has  been  swallowed  up  in  victory. 
Conflned  by  no  material  trammels,  the  omnipres- 
ent and  omniscient  Spirit  has  awakened  every 
troubled  convicted  sinner,  has  been  the  Comforter 
of  every  child  of  Christ.  His  agency  has  been 
manifest  in  the  awe  that  has  pervaded  wide  com- 
munities, in  the  confessions  of  penitence  at 
unnumbered  altars,  in  the  vows  of  obedience 
before  the  Searcher  of  all  hearts,  in  the  lives  of 
sacrifice  and  holiness  read  and  known  of  all 
men. 

Wider  and  richer  results  are  yet  to  come.  Un- 
der his  divine  guidance  tlie  word  is  to  go  forth 
with  power  in  all  lands,  and  the  world  is  to  be 
converted.  The  ministration  of  the  Spirit  will  be 
still  more  glorious.      Mind  shall  be  disenthralled. 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  195 

The  bondage  of  corruption  shall  cease.  All  men 
shall  be  brought  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God. 

A  glance  at  some  of  the  more  marked  results 
of  the  Spirit's  agency  will  be  sufficient  to  demon- 
strate the  glory  of  his  ministration,  to  prove  that 
it  is  much  more  glorious  than  any  that  has  pre- 
ceded it. 

According  to  the  instructions  of  the  Master,  his 
apostles  returned  from  Olivet  to  Jerusalem  to 
await  in  meditation  and  prayer  the  promised  ad- 
vent of  the  Spirit.  In  a  marked  manner  the 
promise  was  fulfilled.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
when  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place, 
there  came  a  sudden  sound  from  heaven,  like  the 
rush  of  a  tempest,  which  filled  the  house  where 
they  were  assembled.  At  the  same  time,  emblem- 
atic of  the  divine  presence,  tongues  of  fire 
flamed  from  the  head  of  each  of  them,  tokens  of 
that  wonderful  power  in  the  use  of  human  lan- 
guages which  they  were  to  receive  as  the  direct 
gift  of  God.  At  once  they  felt  the  energy  of  that 
divine  Agent  who  had  been  promised,  and  they 
were  miraculously  endowed  with  the  gift  of 
tongues.  To  the  temporary  dwellers  in  Jerusalem, 
who  had  come  up  from  "every  nation  under 
heaven  "  to  the  sacred  feast,  they  began  to  publish 
the  gospel  of  Christ.     Then  followed  the  first,  and 


196  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

in  some  respects  the  most  remarkable,  revival  of 
the  new  dispensation,  characterized  by  phenom- 
ena similar  to  those  which  have  since  been 
witnessed  in  what  are  called,  in  memorial  of  this 
event,  pentecostal  seasons.  The  truth  presented 
by  the  apostles  was  carried  home  by  the  Spirit  to 
the  minds  which  he  had  awakened  to  receive  it. 
Some  who  but  a  few  days  before,  possibly, 
were  shouting  with  the  Jewish  rabble,  "  Crucify 
him  !"  were  now  convicted  of  their  sins,  and  trem- 
blingly asked,  "Brethren,  what  shall  we  do?" 
Out  of  the  vast  multitude  who  on  that  day 
listened  to  the  preaching  of  the  cross,  three 
thousand  souls  accepted  Christ.  Such  was  the 
glorious  commencement  of  the  Spirit's  ministra- 
tion. In  all  their  future  labors  the  apostles  were 
blessed  with  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
gave  the  gospel  its  marvelous  efficacy,  so  that 
Jewish  prejudice  and  intolerance  and  Gentile 
pride  and  paganism  gave  way  before  it,  while  the 
humbling  religion  of  Jesus  became  aggressive  and 
dominant.  For  a  while  it  seemed  as  though  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  would  carry  all  before  it. 

Centuries  of  darkness  had  rolled  over  the 
world  before  the  morning  light  of  the  Reforma- 
tion dawned.  Learning  was  locked  in  the  cells 
of  hooded  monks,  while  ignorance  blindly  led  the 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  197 

multitude.  Faction  and  fanaticism  widely  pre- 
vailed. The  fiat  of  the  Pontiff,  the  terrors  of  the 
Inquisition,  awed  the  nations.  It  seemed  as 
though  earth's  darkest  night  would  know  no 
morning,  as  though  the  tyranny  of  Rome  could 
not  be  broken.  But  the  Holy  Spirit  began  his 
work.  Quietly,  in  the  cloister  of  a  thoughtful  monk, 
he  awakened  profound  interest  in  the  great 
truths  of  revelation.  On  the  dusty  shelves  of  the 
University  of  Erfurth  lay  a  Latin  Bible.  To 
that  book  the  Spirit  guided  the  hand  of  the 
thoughtful  student  and  clearly  illuminated  the 
word  of  God  to  his  mind,  so  that  he  longed  for 
the  way  to  Christ  and  to  salvation. 

The  great  work  of  the  Reformation  was  the 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  led  Luther  out  of  the 
bondage  of  the  papacy  and  commissioned  him  as 
the  eminent  apostle  of  the  reform.  That  work  of 
the  sixteenth  century  will  ever  stand  as  a  demon- 
stration of  the  wonderful  agency  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  minds  of  men.  The  world  awoke  as  from  the 
nightmare  of  ages.  The  power  of  the  papacy  was 
broken,  and  what  it  lost  has  never  been  regained. 
Nations  threw  off  their  vassalage  to  the  papal  see, 
and  the  Pontiff  who  had  put  on  crowns  or  dis- 
placed them  at  his  will  became  the  harmless 
bishop  of  Rome.  With  the  wide  revival  of  re- 
ligion came  also  the  renaissance  of  learning  and 


198  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

art.  Through  every  department  of  life  in  many 
lands  the  Reformation  sent  the  shock  of  its  in- 
fluence, an  influence  which  shall  not  cease  till 
Christ's  churches  everywhere  shall  stand  forth  in 
that  freedom  wherewith  Christ  makes  his  people 
free. 

It  was  the  work  of  the  Spirit  which  gave 
Puritanism  its  start  and  steady  growth  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  which  led  on  to  the  de- 
velopment of  those  principles  of  religious  and 
civil  liberty  which  have  made  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  the  seats  of  spiritual  and 
benevolent  churches  and  which  have  made  those 
nations  foremost  in  all  that  is  truly  great  and 
worthy. 

It  was  the  work  of  the  Spirit  which  led  to  "  the 
great  awakening"  of  the  eighteenth  century 
whose  power  extended  through  northern  Europe 
and  the  English  colonies  of  America,  when 
Whitefield  and  Wesley  in  England,  and  Edwards 
and  the  Tennents  in  America,  were  the  apostles 
of  the  triumphant  gospel  of  Christ.  Then  a  new 
era  in  the  history  of  the  churches  commenced. 
On  a  broad  extent  of  territory  an  unwonted  solem- 
nity and  a  spirit  of  inquiry  prevailed.  Religion 
became  the  all-engrossing  subject  of  thought  and 
conversation  on  the  part  of  multitudes,  so  that  in 
many  instances  secular  duties  were  neglected,  and 


OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  199 

it  became  necessary  for  pastors  to  remind  mem- 
bers of  their  flocks  of  that  part  of  the  command, 
"Six  days  shalt  thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy 
work."  Christians  were  revived  and  sinners  were 
awakened.  Itinerant  preachers,  like  Whifefield 
and  Tennent,  went  from  place  to  place,  declaring 
with  a  pungency  and  power  like  that  of  the 
ancient  prophets,  the  messages  of  God.  "  The 
doctrines  of  grace "  were  pointedly  presented  to 
the  congregations,  and  the  word  of  God  became 
"  living,  and  active  .  .  .  and  piercing  even  to  the 
dividing  of  soul  and  spirit . . .  and  quick  to  discern 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart."  On  some 
occasions,  hundreds  under  a  single  discourse  were 
hopefully  converted  and  within  a  few  years  tens 
of  thousands  were  united  to  the  visible  Church  of 
Christ,  and  the  pentecostal  days  seemed  to  have 
returned  again. 

The  precious  revivals  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
those  works  of  grace  in  which  we  have  shared,  are 
also  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They  have 
been  witnessed  by  all  the  world:  not  merely  in 
Christian  communities,  but  in  the  old  realms  of 
paganism — wherever,  upon  continents  or  islands 
of  the  sea,  missionaries  have  planted  the  cross. 

The  new  development  of  personal  devotion  to 
Christ  among  the  young,  which  has  banded  mil- 
lions of  youthful  disciples  in  covenant  and  earn- 


200  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

est  endeavor  for  Christ  and  the  Church  has  been 
evidently  marked  by  the  leadings  of  the  divine 
Spirit. 

It  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit  to  extend  the 
triumphs  of  the  gospel,  to  bring  on  the  fulfillment 
of  ancient  prophecy  respecting  the  universal  reign 
of  Christ  on  earth.  That  is  indeed  a  glorious 
ministration  which  is  to  secure  the  emancipation 
of  the  world  from  sin,  which  is  to  usher  in  the 
dayspring  from  on  high,  and  to  bring  forward 
the  noontide  glories  of  the  promised  and  long- 
awaited  Millennium. 


EPOCH  IX. 


THE  MILLENNIAL. 


THE  MILLENNIAL. 


For  nineteen  hundred  years  the  Church  of 
Christ  has  looked  forward  to  the  Millennium. 
That  golden  age  of  prophecy,  brighter  in  the  dis- 
tant future  than  the  golden  age  of  the  past  of 
which  the  poets  have  sung,  sweeter  with  its  para- 
dise regained  than  was  the  paradise  which  was 
lost,  early  caught  the  gaze  of  the  Christian  seer, 
before  whom,  among  the  rocky  peaks  of  Patmos, 
was  unrolled  the  long  history  of  the  Church 
through  her  conflicts  and  trials  and  triumphs. 
In  the  dark  days  of  the  early  militant  Church, 
when  the  sword  of  persecution  was  unsheathed 
against  it  and  the  strong  arm  of  power  wrought 
to  cast  it  down,  it  was  the  thought  of  that  coming 
time  of  peace  and  glory  which  sustained  the  dis- 
ciples in  their  toils  and  sufferings.  Cheeringly  to 
the  vision  of  the  martyr  rose  the  sublime  prospect 
of  a  prosperous  epoch  when  the  earth  shall 
become  the  undisputed  inheritance  of  the  saints 
and  there  shall  be  none  to  vex  them.  Soothingly, 
like   the   harmonies   of  celestial    minstrelsy,   fell 

203 


204  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

upon  the  ear  of  the  dying  believer  the  sweet 
strains  as  of  multitudinous  voices  jubilant 
through  that  coming  period  whose  dawn  he  had 
hoped  to  see.  As  the  ages  have  gone  on  faith  in 
the  good  time  that  is  coming  has  not  wavered, 
but  still  the  watchers  from  afar  have  seen  its 
light  streaming  up  the  sky,  as  dwellers  on  hills 
and  mountain-sides  have  seen  the  gleams  of  the 
morning  on  the  remote  horizon.  In  the  hasten- 
ing on  of  that  time  pious  men  of  every  genera- 
tion have  joyfully  labored,  in  full  confidence  that 
He  who  has  promised  will  in  his  own  wisdom 
bring  it  to  pass.  The  hope  of  the  Millennium  is 
alive  and  active  now  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
of  God  as  truly  as  at  any  former  period ;  so  that 
some  are  even  cherishing  the  fond  expectation 
that  they  shall  live  within  the  time  of  the  Millen- 
nial reign  of  Christ. 

The  belief  of  the  Church  respecting  this  epoch  of 
its  history  has  not  been  uniform.  Quite  com- 
monly it  has  not  been  considered  as  a  result  of 
the  ordinary  and  natural  development  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  through  processes  of  instruction 
and  growth  such  as  are  usually  employed,  but 
rather  as  a  special  bestowment  of  victory  and 
glory  by  a  direct  divine  interposition.  It  was 
very  natural  that  the  Jews  who  were  converted  to 
Christianity  should  retain  many  of  the  Hebrew 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  205 

notions  respecting  the  Messiah.  Accordingly,  we 
find  very  early  traces  of  the  belief  in  the  per- 
sonal reign  of  Christ  at  a  coming  period — a  literal 
interpretation  of  those  passages  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures  which  in  glowing  poetry  and  high- 
wrought  figures  describe  that  event.  As  early  as 
the  second  century,  this  theory  became  a  prev- 
alent doctrine,  and  high  names  among  the  fathers 
of  that  age  are  enrolled  in  its  defense.  Although 
this  view  has  been  more  or  less  modified  by  the 
character  and  education  of  the  minds  that  have 
embraced  it,  it  is  still  widely  maintained,  and  is 
now  one  of  the  two  great  theories  on  this  sub- 
ject between  which  the  faith  of  Christians  is 
divided. 

It  sets  forth  the  fact  that  the  Lord  shall  visibly 
appear  and  reign  upon  the  earth,  with  all  his 
saints,  for  a  thousand  years,  in  splendor  and  en- 
joyment beyond  anything  which  has  before  been 
known.  It  is  claimed  by  some  that  at  his  second 
advent  the  righteous  dead  shall  be  raised,  and 
that  after  the  thousand  years,  there  shall  be  the 
resurrection  of  the  wicked  and  the  final  judgment 
of  the  world.  Gross  and  sensuous  views  have 
sometimes  been  entertained  of  the  millennial 
state  which  are  utterly  without  warrant  of  the 
word  of  God.  Fanciful  ideas  often  have  been 
propounded  by  writers  in  their  discussion  of  the 


206  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

subject,  to  such  a  degree  that  minds  of  more  sober 
and  reflective  cast  have  been  repelled  from  any 
consideration  of  it. 

A  more  just  and  scriptural  opinion  seems  to  be 
this :  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  through  the 
agencies  which  have  been  and  are  being  em- 
ployed, shall  at  length  become  universally  prev- 
alent, and  that  then  for  a  long  period  he  shall 
exercise  a  spiritual  dominion  over  the  race;  not 
that  all  souls  will  be  converted,  but  so  that,  in  a 
general  way,  it  may  be  said  that  the  world  is 
converted. 

This  opinion,  for  two  reasons  at  least,  appears 
to  be  more  correct  than  that  which  teaches  the 
visible  reign  of  Christ  for  a  thousand  years.  First, 
it  affords  a  rational  interpretation  to  those  pas- 
sages of  Scripture  which  are  most  confidently  re- 
lied on  for  the  latter  opinion.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose  that  the  apostle,  where  he  speaks  in 
the  Apocalypse  of  the  reign  of  Christ,  intends  a 
visible  personal  reign.  His  spiritual  dominion, 
through  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  the  glorious 
ministration  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  universal 
triumph  of  Christianity,  fairly  exhausts  the 
meaning  of  his  statements  and  is  more  in  har- 
mony with  other  teachings  of  the  Scriptures. 
Secondly,  this  opinion  does  not  conflict  with  those 
passages  of  Scripture  which  teach  that  the  second 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  207 

advent  of  Christ  will  be  for  the  judgment  of  the 
world.  Christ  represents  that  the  design  of  his 
coming  again  in  glory  is  not  for  the  sake  of 
reigning  bodily  on  earth  but  for  the  sake  of  judg- 
ing all  nations.  He  says  he  will  come  again  not 
to  live  with  his  friends  in  this  world,  but  to  take 
them  to  live  with  him  in  the  places  which  he  has 
prepared  for  them  in  the  mansions  of  his  Father. 
He  tells  of  only  one  resurrection-time — that  of  the 
evil  and  the  good. 

Before  Christ's  ascension  the  apostles  believed  in 
a  personal  reign,  but  after  they  were  enlightened 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  they  seem  to  have  looked  and 
labored  only  for  the  spiritual  sovereignty  of  their 
Master.  They  afterward  taught  that  his  coming 
would  be  for  judgment;  his  descent  would  be 
with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  with  the 
trump  of  God ;  his  eye  would  penetrate  every 
soul  and  bring  to  light  the  hidden  things  of 
darkness;  then,  after  judgment  has  been  pro- 
nounced, Cometh  the  end — the  heavens  to  pass 
away  with  tumult,  the  earth  with  all  its  works  to 
be  burned,  the  righteous  to  ascend  to  be  forever 
with  the  Lord. 

Pleasant,  therefore,  as  may  be  the  illusion  of 
the  bodily  reign  of  Christ,  and  gratifying  as  it 
may  be  to  many  minds  to  indulge  in  visionary 
conceptions  concerning    such  an  event,  we   do 


208  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

not  seem  to  be  warranted  by  the  Scriptures  in  con- 
senting to  that  view. 

The  date  of  the  Millennium  is  unknown.  Those 
who  have  wrought  most  assiduously  at  the  Apoca- 
lyptic chronology  cannot  agree  upon  the  time. 
It  is  not  designed  that  they  should.  As  early  as 
the  lifetime  of  St.  Paul  there  were  those  who  held 
that  the  second  advent  of  Christ  was  near ;  and 
this  opinion  created  alarm  with  some  and  caused 
others  to  renounce  their  worldly  associations. 
The  apostle  wrote  a  letter  to  correct  this  error, 
and  to  teach,  as  other  portions  of  the  Bible  also 
teach,  that  "  of  that  day  knoweth  no  man."  The 
same  thing  is  true  of  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  the  Millennium.  We  do  not  know  when  its 
brilliant  morning  shall  dawn  upon  the  world, 
nor  how  long  that  splendid  epoch  shall  con- 
tinue. 

It  is  a  common  opinion  that  the  seventh  mil- 
lennary  in  the  history  of  the  world  will  consti- 
tute the  biblical  Millennium.  As  God  originally 
appointed  six  days  for  labor,  to  be  followed  by  the 
Sabbath,  so  it  has  been  thought  that  six  thousand 
years  of  sin  may  be  followed  by  a  thousand  years 
of  holiness,  the  Sabbath  of  the  world's  history. 
There  is  something  natural  and  alluring  in  this 
theory,  although  there  is  nothing  but  this  remote 
analogy  to  sustain  it.    Some  have  argued  that  the 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  209 

thousand  years  of  Christ's  reign  should  be  reck- 
oned as  are  other  prophetical  dates,  a  day  for  a 
year,  which  would  make  the  millennial  period  to 
consist  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand 
years.  This  view,  full  of  comfort  and  inspiration, 
opens  a  grand  prospect  for  the  Church  and  for  the 
w^orld.  It  makes  these  preparatory  periods  of  a 
few  thousand  years  seem  insignificant  in  contrast 
with  that  long  period  of  more  than  paradisean 
glory  and  blessedness.  Thus  would  the  wisdom 
and  benevolence  of  God  in  the  government  of  the 
w^orld  stand  out  in  striking  characters,  while  the 
multitudes  of  the  redeemed  through  those  pro- 
longed ages  of  peace  and  universal  holiness 
would  immensely  surpass  the  numbers  of  the  un- 
saved and  greatly  augment  the  apparent  excel- 
lence and  glory  of  the  Saviour's  work.  Whether 
this  shall  be  so  or  not  must  be  left  to  the  slow  ful- 
fillment of  those  predictions  which  abound  in  the 
word  of  God,  but  which  appear  to  be  left  de- 
signedly obscure,  so  that  they  can  be  clearly  inter- 
preted only  by  the  event. 

The  coming  on  of  the  Millennium  will  undoubt- 
edly be  slow  and  progressive  and  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  providence.  We  have  no  warrant  for 
thinking  that  it  will  be  miraculously  ushered  in, 
that  violent  and  revolutionary  overturnings  will 
prepare  the  way  for  it,  that  the  kingdom  of  God 

14 


210  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

will  be  forced  upon  the  nations.  Its  evolution 
will  be  normal  and  without  observation.  All 
things  which  are  now  taking  place,  the  moral  and 
political  changes  which  are  occurring,  the  benevo- 
lent and  missionary  movements  of  the  Church, 
the  pantings  and  struggles  of  the  unevangelized 
peoples  for  improvement,  are  all  preparatory  to 
the  final  and  complete  triumph  of  the  Christ. 
Slowly  and  surely  the  ancient  and  venerable 
dominions  of  paganism  will  be  undermined, 
until  at  the  appointed  time  they  shall  fall  beyond 
recovery.  Slowly  and  surely  the  principles  of  the 
gospel  shall  be  planted  like  good  seed  in  the  soil 
of  the  nations,  until,  when  in  the  good  providence 
of  God  the  springtime  shall  come,  they  shall  ger- 
minate and  ripen  quickly  for  the  glorious  har- 
vest. 

We  can  form  but  a  faint  idea  of  the  possible 
rapid  spread  and  victories  of  the  gospel,  when  the 
hindrances  shall  be  removed  and  the  mighty 
energies  of  the  Spirit  shall  give  efficacy  to  the 
labors  of  the  churches.  A  nation  shall  then  be 
born  in  a  day.  On  the  right  hand  and  on  the 
left,  from  the  north  and  from  the  south,  shall  be 
heard  the  tidings  of  whole  communities  embra- 
cing the  gospel  of  Christ.  Days  like  that  of  Pente- 
cost may  be  witnessed  simultaneously  in  many 
quarters.     What  we  have  seen  in  small  districts, 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  211 

during  powerful  revivals,  that  which  we  have 
seen  in  the  success  of  the  gospel  among  the 
Hawaiian  people,  among  the  Karens,  may  be  but 
feeble  illustrations  of  what  is  yet  to  take  place  on 
a  comprehensive  scale.  Revivals  may  extend 
over  continents,  truth  be  joyfully  embraced,  error 
lose  its  power  over  the  human  mind,  wide  vic- 
tories of  grace  wait  on  the  agency  of  the  Spirit, 
thousands  and  millions  throng  penitently  and 
gladly  to  Christ  as  a  welcome  Saviour,  and  the 
w^orld  come  over  on  to  the  Lord's  side.  All  this 
may  take  place  quietly,  enmity  and  opposition 
being  withdrawn  and  all  souls  coming  to  know 
the  need  and  the  worth  of  salvation,  under  the 
awe  of  God's  recognized  presence.  If  this  be  so, 
who  can  tell  how  soon  the  Millennium  will  dawn 
upon  the  world  ?  While  some  now  living  shall  be 
witnesses,  the  grand  epoch  may  be  ushered  in. 
The  seventh-thousand  period  may  be  that  of  the 
world's  jubilee. 

The  order  of  events  may  be  substantially  gath- 
ered from  the  Scriptures :  Christ  shall  gradually 
gain  supremacy  over  sin,  heathenism,  and  error ; 
there  shall  be  for  a  long  period  the  universal 
diffusion  of  Christianity;  after  that  for  a  season 
Satan  shall  prevail ;  then  shall  come  the  judg- 
ment, the  end  of  the  world,  with  the  future  allot- 
ments of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked. 


212  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

The  characteristics  of  the  Millennium  must  be 
derived  solely  from  revelation.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  nature  of  things,  nothing  in  the  logic  of 
the  situation,  to  prove  that  the  gospel  shall 
finally  triumph.  It  has  well  been  said,  "The 
Millennium  is  a  hieroglyph  not  yet  solved."  The 
analogy  from  past  history  would  show  that  the 
victories  of  the  truth  are  to  be  followed  by 
mournful  reverses,  that  whatever  success  it  may 
gain,  however  hopeful  may  be  its  prospects,  dis- 
aster is  to  tread  hard  after,  and  disappointing 
days  are  to  follow.  So  was  it  after  the  successes 
of  the  apostolic  times.  So  was  it  after  Constan- 
tine  had  made  Christianity  the  religion  of  im- 
perial Rome.  So  was  it  after  the  Reformation 
and  the  great  revivals  of  religion.  So,  but  for 
the  promises  of  God,  the  pledge  of  his  aid,  might 
it  be  in  the  future.  Even  now  there  are  terrible 
indications  that  the  magnificent  work  which  has 
been  heroically  accomplished  by  our  scholarly 
and  judicious  brethren  in  the  planting  of  insti- 
tutions of  learning  and  religion  at  vast  expense 
and  sacrifice  throughout  the  empire  of  the  Sultan 
will  be  exterminated  through  the  chicanery  and 
fury  of  the  unspeakable  Turk.  Human  nature 
is  prone  to  wrong-doing.  Idolatry  and  super- 
stition gratify  the  mind  that  does  not  like  to 
retain  God  in  its  knowledge.     As  far  as  men  are 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  213 

concerned,  there  is  no  assurance  of  the  su- 
premacy of  Christianity ;  there  is  no  bulwark  in 
the  nature  or  habits  of  the  race  strong  enough 
to  withstand  the  onsets  of  evil.  The  fact,  there- 
fore, of  the  Millennium,  and  its  characteristics, 
must  be  learned  from  the  word  of  God. 

In  the  Bible  an  epoch  is  spoken  of  such  as  has 
not  yet  been  witnessed.  Indeed,  from  the  earliest 
times,  all  along  in  the  history  of  God's  dealings 
with  men,  there  is  a  succession  of  predictions  of 
the  most  interesting  character,  expressed  in  a 
variety  of  forms,  all  pointing  forward  to  a  time 
that  has  not  yet  been  known  on  earth.  Hardly 
had  the  fall  occurred,  when  the  pledge  was  given 
and  the  prediction  made  that  the  seed  of  the 
woman  should  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent. 
This  pledge  is  yet  to  be  redeemed.  Satan's  power 
is  to  be  broken ;  his  dominion  over  men  is  to  be 
destroyed ;  Christ  is  to  reign  supreme  on  earth ; 
and  then  the  prediction  will  be  fulfilled.  Parallel 
wdth  this  is  another  prediction,  given  more  than 
four  thousand  years  after  the  former,  which  says, 
that  the  old  serpent,  which  is  the  Devil  and 
Satan,  shall  be  bound  for  a  thousand  years,  and 
cast  into  the  abyss,  which  shall  be  shut  and 
sealed  over  him,  that  he  should  deceive  the 
nations  no  more  till  the  end  of  the  thousand 
years.     This  event  is  still  future:   the  thousand 


214  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

years  are  to  come.  Between  these  two  strikingly 
similar  predictions,  so  far  asunder,  are  many 
others  which  describe  the  state  of  things  on  their 
fulfillment.  It  is  written  that  God  will  give  to 
his  Son  the  nations  for  his  inheritance  and  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession; 
that  all  kings  shall  bow  down  before  him,  all 
nations  shall  serve  him ;  that  from  the  rising  of 
the  sun  even  unto  the  going  down  of  the  same 
God's  name  shall  be  great  among  the  Gentiles ; 
and  in  every  place  incense  shall  be  offered  unto 
his  name  and  a  pure  offering;  that  the  earth 
shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea;  that  God 
has  sworn  by  himself,  that  unto  him  every  knee 
shall  bow,  every  tongue  shall  swear;  that  the 
days  are  coming  when  they  shall  not  teach  every 
man  his  fellow-citizen,  and  every  man  his  brother, 
saying,  "Know  the  Lord,"  for  all  shall  know 
him  from  the  least  to  the  greatest  of  them.  It 
was  prophesied  by  Daniel,  "The  kingdom  and 
the  dominion,  and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdoms 
under  the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the 
people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  :  his  king- 
dom is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  all  domin- 
ions shall  serve  and  obey  him."  St.  John,  on  the 
lonely  watch-tower  that  loomed  above  the  dark 
waters  of  the  JEgean,  heard  great  voices  in  heaven. 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  21 5 

saying,  "  The  kingdom  of  the  world  is  become  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord,  and  of  his  Christ :  and  he 
shall  reign  forever  and  ever."  These  and  numer- 
ous other  statements  of  Scripture  foretell  a  period 
such  as  has  not  yet  been  witnessed,  and  plainly 
indicate  the  coming  Millennium. 

Preeminently  that  epoch  shall  be  one  of  holi- 
ness. Sin  shall  be  banished  from  the  world.  If  the 
passages  which  predicate  universal  holiness  of 
that  period  are  not  to  be  taken  as  strictly  literal 
in  that  respect,  they  may  be  fairly  understood  as 
teaching  that  the  exceptions  shall  be  so  few  as  not 
to  be  regarded  in  a  general  statement.  It  is  the 
reign  of  Christ  over  his  saints.  "  In  that  day,"  it 
is  predicted,  "shall  there  be  upon  the  bells  of  the 
horses.  Holy  unto  the  Lord."  Religion  shall  be  all- 
controlling  ;  it  shall  influence  men  in  every  call- 
ing and  relation  of  life.  Idolatry,  superstition, 
all  forms  of  false  worship,  shall  be  done  away. 
The  mighty  systems  of  imposture  and  paganism 
which,  for  ages,  have  held  under  their  iron  tyr- 
anny the  vast  majority  of  the  human  family, 
shall  then  be  unknown.  The  misery  and  degra- 
dation consequent  upon  them,  the  pain  and  toils 
and  dangers  of  penances  and  pilgrimages,  shall  be 
no  more.  In  place  of  them  shall  be  the  pure 
worship  of  God,  in  the  home,  in  the  sanctuary, 
over  all  the  world.    The  reign  of  sin  on  the  earth 


216  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

has  been  long  and  fearsome.  It  has  cursed  the 
world  and  the  dwellers  upon  it.  Nature  has  felt 
the  pain.  It  has  planted  the  soil  with  thorns  and 
briers.  It  has  doomed  man  to  the  servitude  of 
warring  forces.  Crime,  lust,  violence,  madness, 
have  sprung  from  it,  and  men  have  gone  in  long 
processions  to  a  wretched  future.  The  whole  cre- 
ation has  groaned  and  travailed  in  pain  together 
until  now. 

The  gloomy  bondage  is  to  be  broken  :  the  fear- 
ful curse  is  to  end ;  the  earth  is  to  become  as  the 
garden  of  God.  Holy  songs,  like  those  of  its 
early  paradise,  are  to  float  up  from  its  entire 
territory. 

That  epoch  shall  be  one  of  peace.  There  shall 
be  no  more  the  armor  of  the  armed  man  in  the 
tumult,  and  the  garments  rolled  in  blood ;  plains 
piled  with  hecatombs  of  slaughtered  men ;  ruins 
of  pillaged  and  burned  cities.  Nations  shall  beat 
their  swords  into  plowshares,  and  their  spears  in- 
to pruning-hooks  ;  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword 
against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any 
more.  Peace,  and  the  general  fruits  of  peace, 
shall  prevail  in  every  land.  The  time  and  cap- 
ital and  labor  employed  in  the  sustaining  of 
armies  and  navies  and  fortifications  and  the  man- 
ufacture of  ammunition  and  arms  shall  be  di- 
verted into  the  channels  of  useful  labor  and  to 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  217 

the  promotion  of  human  happiness.  The  ocean 
shall  become  the  highway  of  a  benevolent  com- 
merce. Trades,  manufactures,  agriculture,  art,  all 
science  and  business,  shall  have  direct  reference 
to  the  welfare  of  men.  The  skill  of  the  artist, 
the  learning  of  the  scholar,  the  labor  of  the  me- 
chanic, the  legislation  of  the  statesman,  every 
profession  and  employment,  shall  be  consecrated 
to  the  true  interests  of  the  race  and  the  glory  of 
God.  Homes,  in  their  rural  beauty;  cities,  in 
their  vast  magnificence;  nations,  in  their  intel- 
lectual and  moral  power ;  earth,  in  the  greatness 
of  its  mighty  population  and  the  grandeur  of  its 
augmenting  glories,  shall  exist  in  peace  and  har- 
mony and  without  fear  of  violence. 

That  epoch  shall  be  one  of  hioivledge.  Religion 
is  the  queen  of  learning.  When  her  sway  shall 
be  complete,  ignorance,  the  daughter  of  sin,  shall 
be  banished  from  the  earth.  When,  at  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  religion  was  revived,  learning 
also  had  revival.  During  the  Dark  Ages,  when 
superstition  ruled  the  nations,  men  were  in  igno- 
rance fearful  and  profound,  but  no  sooner  had  the 
trumpet-blast  sounded  from  the  cell  of  Erfurth 
than  the  mind  of  the  nations  was  aroused,  and 
science,  art,  and  popular  education  were  revived. 
It  is  in  Christian  states  that  true  science  and 
learning  have  their  honored  seats  and  secure  their 


218  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS, 

brightest  successes.  What,  then,  may  we  not  ex- 
pect when  the  reign  of  righteousness  shall  become 
universal,  and  when  the  minds  of  men  shall  be 
untrammeled  by  sin  ?  Who  shall  say  that  the 
discoveries  of  modern  science,  the  inventions  and 
improvements  of  our  age,  already  wonderful,  are 
anything  more  than  the  faint  foreshadowings  of 
those  works  of  genius,  inventions  in  science,  and 
employment  of  the  slumbering  forces  around 
us,  which  shall  be  witnessed  amidst  the  intelli- 
gent and  splendid  triumphs  of  the  Millennium  ? 
What  will  hinder  but  that  the  acute  mind  shall 
discover  new  applications  of  the  laws  already 
known,  more  powerful  forces  within  the  arcana 
of  nature,  sublimer  truths  hitherto  wisely  con- 
cealed, so  that  works  of  strength  and  beauty  and 
utility  shall  far  surpass  those  which  have  hereto- 
fore been  known? 

There  shall  be  the  prevalence  also  of  higher 
spiritual  knowledge.  The  earth  shall  be  full  of 
the  hioidedge  of  the  Lord.  "  In  that  day  shall  the 
deaf  hear  the  words  of  the  book,  and  the  eyes  of 
the  blind  shall  see  out  of  obscurity  and  out  of 
darkness.  .  .  .  They  also  that  err  in  spirit  shall 
come  to  understanding,  and  they  that  murmur 
shall  learn  doctrine."  Wisdom  and  knowledge 
shall  be  the  stability  of  those  times.  The  great 
truths  of  revelation  shall  come  into  clearer  in- 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  2l9 

terpretation,  while  the  deep  things  of  God  shall 
be  made  known  by  the  Spirit  to  man. 

That  epoch  shall  be  one  of  prosperity  and  enjoy- 
ment. Whereas  adversity  and  pain  have  been  the 
sad  heritage  of  man,  blessedness  and  material 
well-being  shall  then  be  his  portion.  The  quiet- 
ness and  loveliness  that  indicate  a  state  of  happy 
prosperity  are  imaged  to  us  in  the  scriptural  de- 
scription of  the  Millennial  state :  "  The  wolf  shall 
dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie 
down  with  the  kid ;  the  calf  and  the  young  lion 
and  the  fatling  together ;  and  a  little  child  shall 
lead  them."  It  is  written  that  tears  shall  be 
wiped  away  from  all  faces,  that  the  ransomed 
shall  come  to  Zion  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy 
upon  their  heads.  Prophecy  in  glowing  imagery 
describes  the  prosperous  condition  of  that  coming 
time,  when  the  commerce  and  wealth  of  the  sea 
shall  be  consecrated  to  God,  when  the  opulence 
and  power  of  the  Gentile  nations  shall  become 
tributary  to  the  truth,  while  upon  Israel  a  cloud- 
less sun  shall  shine  with  perpetual  radiance. 
Beyond  all  doubt  the  Scriptures  teach  that  in 
company  with  the  Gentile  world,  the  ancient 
people  of  God  shall  enjoy  the  blessings  of  the 
Millennium.  Though  they  may  not  be  restored 
to  their  own  land,  the  historic  soil  of  Palestine,  as 
for   ages  has  been  their  hope,  they  shall  be  re- 


220  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

stored  to  the  privileges  and  blessings  of  their  for- 
feited covenant  with  God. 

The  indications  of  the  approach  of  the  Millen- 
nium are  numerous.  These  indications  are  seen 
in  the  decay  of  old  systems  of  error.  The  time 
was  when  those  systems  which  have  most  widely 
prevailed  were  vigorous  and  aggressive.  They 
sent  forth  their  apostles;  they  entered  upon 
careers  of  conquest;  they  converted  nations  to 
their  faith.  Brahmanism  once  had  the  vitality 
and  energy  necessary  for  its  wide  increase  and 
prevalence.  Buddhism  was  once  marked  by  emi- 
nent growth  and  extension.  Its  missionaries 
went  from  land  to  land,  over  the  mountain 
ranges  of  the  Himalaya,  and  beyond  the  waters 
of  the  Indus,  in  the  zeal  of  a  vigorous  propa- 
gandism.  Mohammedanism,  relying  on  carnal 
weapons,  the  fire  and  the  sword,  once  forced  itself 
upon  the  nations  of  Western  Asia  and  became  the 
religion  of  many  wild  and  powerful  tribes.  But 
the  days  of  conquest  and  extension  of  these 
various  systems  are  past.  Although  still  power- 
ful, they  are  waning ;  the  latest  attempts  at  their 
revival  are  the  spasms  of  dissolution ;  they  are  in 
their  dotage ;  their  deluded  subjects  are  losing 
faith  in  them  and  reverence  for  them.  Slowly 
and  surely  they  are  giving  way  before  the  power 
of    truth   and   the   agency   of   Providence.     The 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  221 

lower  forms  of  heathenism  seem  to  be  only  await- 
ing a  vigorous  assault  before  they  shall  fall  and 
pass  away.  In  our  own  time  there  has  been  the 
extraordinary  spectacle  of  a  people  anticipating 
the  presence  of  missionaries  by  casting  their 
idols  to  the  moles  and  the  bats.  A  divine  in- 
fluence is  abroad  in  the  earth,  weakening  the 
powers  of  darkness  and  bringing  on  a  dissolution 
of  their  accursed  sway. 

If  we  turn  to  the  corrupt  forms  of  Christianity, 
we  witness  symptoms  of  decay  or  of  a  return  to  a 
purer  faith.  Roman  Catholicism,  though  claim- 
ing immutability  and  infallibility,  is  becoming 
greatl}^  modified  in  its  theories  and  practices,  has 
renounced,  to  a  great  extent,  its  crimes  of  perse- 
cution, has  abolished  the  Inquisition,  is  favoring 
the  use  of  the  Bible  by  the  laity,  and  is  disposed 
to  some  measure  of  outward  fellowship  with 
those  who  are  not  of  its  communion.  It  has  lost 
its  ascendency  in  the  more  enlightened  states, 
and  even  in  Rome  holds  itself  as  a  prisoner  of 
the  Italian  government.  The  ancient  oriental 
churches  which  long  ago  departed  from  the  faith 
once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints,  have  wit- 
nessed revivals  of  pure  religion.  In  the  Greek, 
Armenian,  Nestorian,  Syrian,  and  Coptic  churches 
has  been  awakened  a  spirit  of  genuine  religious 
inquiry,  and  in  some  cases  their  ecclesiastics  have 


222  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

become  the  subjects  of  saving  grace.  We  may 
anticipate  with  hope  the  regeneration  of  these 
ancient  churches  and  the  renewal  of  their  old- 
time  zeal  in  the  spread  of  the  gospel. 

Indications  of  the  approach  of  the  Millennium 
may  also  be  seen  in  the  wide  success  of  Christian 
missions  and  in  the  determination  of  the  folloivers  of 
Christ  to  push  to  completion  the  conquests  of  the 
truth.  Many  are  abroad  with  the  good  news,  and 
knowledge  is  increasing ;  the  women  that  publish 
the  tidings  are  a  great  host.  The  gospel  is  gain- 
ing firm  foothold  in  many  lands :  the  barriers  of 
sin  and  superstition  are  falling  before  it;  the 
word  of  God  is  read  in  every  language;  the 
means  of  grace  are  brought  to  bear  upon  all  ages 
and  classes  of  men.  Christianity  is  ever  aggres- 
sive. The  crumbhng  of  other  systems  indicates 
its  more  vigorous  exertions.  Close  on  the  track 
of  its  retreating  foes,  it  presses  hard  after,  to  gain 
what  they  have  lost.  Over  the  wreck  and  ruin 
of  Satan's  empire,  it  urges  its  way  to  the  conquest 
of  the  world.  Nothing  less  has  ever  been  its 
aim;  nothing  less  will  satisfy  its  adherents. 
Every  error  must  be  supplanted  by  the  life-giving 
truth.  For  this  have  its  apostles  toiled :  for  this 
have  its  martyrs  died:  for  this  has  the  contest 
been  hotly  and  unceasingly  waged,  as  the  ages 
have  rolled  away.     Its  heralds  are  more  widely 


THE  MILLENNIAL.  223 

scattered  tlum  ever  before ;  its  conquering  hosts 
are  abroad  on  every  battle  plain.  They  are 
piercing  the  old  realms  of  night  and  summoning 
to  yield  the  strong  fortresses  of  sin.  The  ivorld ! 
THE  WORLD !  is  their  battle-cry,  and  it  rings  from 
land  to  land,  as  through  watching  and  toiling 
victory  follows  victory. 

The  fulfillment  of  pwphecy  further  indicates  the 
approach  of  the  Millennium.  Through  the  dim- 
ness of  ages  the  ancient  seers  beheld  the  radiance 
of  a  glorious  day.  The  prophets  declared  the 
coming  of  a  time  when  holiness  and  happiness 
shall  prevail  upon  the  earth.  As  the  scroll  of 
time  has  been  unrolled,  fulfillment  has  followed 
fulfillment,  until  we  are  drawing  near  the  end. 
Empire  after  empire  has  risen  and  flourished  and 
passed  away,  as  the  prophets  predicted.  One 
event  has  succeeded  another  according  to  their 
express  declarations. 

There  are  portents  which  indicate  that  dire 
events  are  near  at  hand.  There  are  omens  of  good 
which  assure  us  that  God  will  overrule  all  things 
for  the  advancement  of  his  holy  Church.  The 
changes  of  our  day,  the  onward  movements  of 
the  nations,  the  overthrow  of  old  powers  of  dark- 
ness, the  victories  of  the  gospel,  all  are  preparing 
the  way  of  the  Lord  and  hastening  the  arrival  of 
the  world's  final  jubilee.    The  day  is  to  come  when 


224  BIBLICAL  EPOCHS. 

"All  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  remember  and 
turn  unto  the  Lord :  and  all  the  kindreds  of  the 
nations  shall  worship  before  him." 

Satan  shall  be  bound ;  the  reign  of  sin  shall  be 
ended;  righteousness  shall  universally  prevail. 
Mankind  shall  be  united  in  one  peaceful  and 
happy  family,  dwelling  in  bonds  of  sympathy 
and  brotherhood,  and  loving  each  his  neighbor 
as  himself  Earth  shall  be  as  a  holy  temple,  re- 
sounding with  songs  of  praise  and  gratitude. 

To  that  splendid  epoch  of  the  world's  Millen- 
nium all  other  epochs  have  been  subsidiary.  The 
march  of  God's  purposes,  in  all  their  grandeur 
and  sublimity,  through  the  complex  events  of  the 
slowly-passing  ages,  has  been  directly  forward  to 
that  crowning  result.  For  that,  dispensation  fol- 
lowed dispensation,  governments  rose  and  fell, 
and  the  whole  history  of  the  world  transpired. 

To  that  glorious  epoch,  we,  with  the  saints  of 
all  ages,  look  confidently  and  longingly  forward. 

O  Christ!  hasten  on  thy  Millennial  reign — the 
reign  of  peace  and  holiness,  and  blessedness ! 


BS540 .H32 
Biblical  epochs. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00038  4208 


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